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Hey Snackers,
Happy hump day. If six hours of sleep is truly as bad as no sleep, we might as well go full Edward Cullen.
The Nasdaq soared ~4% yesterday as tech shares rebounded after a rough few weeks. The House will likely make a final vote today on the $1.9T stimulus plan.
Unite
Amazon's historic labor showdown: why the 'Zon is fighting the union push
The labor force awakens... and Bezos has a problem. Amazon workers in Alabama are pushing to unionize their warehouse, which would create the first Amazon union in the US. They want job security and better working conditions. Amazon wants them to stop.
- The status: Ballots were sent out to the warehouse's 5.8K workers last month. They have until March 29th to vote.
- The fallout: If they say "yes" to the union, Amazon will be legally required to bargain with the retail union (aka: its nightmare). That could also inspire other Amazonians to unionize.
- The response: The 'Zon is fighting back hard. Think: anti-union banners, emails, and even flyers in the warehouse bathrooms.
Power in numbers... By uniting workers, labor unions have leverage to improve working conditions for groups they represent. Think: negotiating contracts with employers on wages, benefits, and hours. While they're still common in Europe, they've fallen out of favor in the US: the unionization rate went from 35% in the mid-1950s, to 11% in 2020.
- Why Amazon is anti-union: Union rules could limit its freedom to quickly hire (or cut) workers, and its ability to automate (aka: hire more robots). Plus, Amazon says it already offers better pay and benefits than its peers.
- BTW: Amazon has been accused of retaliating against pro-union workers. Last month, President Biden tweeted a video saying workers should be able to vote without pressure from corporate.
The Union Awakening transcends collar colors.... Unions are typically associated with blue-collar jobs (like car manufacturing). In recent years, we've seen white-collar unions emerge. On the media side, BuzzFeed employees formed a union in 2019. On the tech side, hundreds of Google employees formed a rare Silicon Valley union this year. Since Googlers' median pay is ~$200K/year, their union is focused on social issues and HR policies. For Amazon warehouse workers, it's all about job security and working conditions.
Vacuum
Carbon capturing captures corporate interest, from Exxon to Shopify
The race to zero... In recent years, companies have pledged billions to reduce their carbon emissions: from Amazon pledging to become carbon-neutral by 2040, to Microsoft pledging to become carbon-negative by 2030. To cut emissions, companies generally invest in renewable energy (like: wind and solar) and carbon offsets (like: paying for tree plantings). But a less common way is gaining traction...
- Carbon capture: It's kind of like vacuum cleaning, for CO2. Carbon dioxide is captured from the air, then moved to a storage site deep underground. Generally, CO2 gets injected into rock formations (#NoEscape).
Counterintuitive... The most common commercial use for captured carbon has been... using it to squeeze oil and gas out of the ground. But now, companies are making moves to sell carbon capture for green purposes.
- Shopify will be the first customer of Carbon Engineering's capturing solution. The Canadian startup will remove CO2 on Shopify's behalf.
- Occidental Petroleum and BHP have also invested in Carbon Engineering, and Chevron invested in carbon capture startup Blue Planet.
- Exxon, once a skeptic, just created a new biz unit to commercialize carbon capture — and sees it as a potential profit puppy.
There's never been a greener time... to sell carbon-removal solutions. President Biden has pledged $2T to clean energy innovation, partly through subsidies for green tech (and his admin has supported carbon capturing). Oil giants are blamed for climate change, and Big Tech companies are also carbon-spewers. Their desire to change, combined with government incentives, could make carbon capture a big biz: Exxon says it'll be a $2T market by 2040, and that it's the cheapest way to address emissions.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Magical: Disney+ tops 100M streaming subscribers just 16 months after launching. Mufasa would be proud.
- DL: Online gaming company Roblox goes public today on the NYSE through a direct listing (ask your 10-year-old cousin about it).
- ZoomOut: Zoom CEO Eric Yuan transfered $6B worth of his Zoom shares (or 40% of his stake) to "unspecified recipients."
- Pickbox: Cloud storage company Dropbox is snatching up document sharing startup DocSend for $165M.
- Taryay: Target is launching an indulgent grocery brand with more than 700 products, from birthday cake ice cream to macarons.
Wednesday
- Earnings expected from Bumble, Campbell Soup, and Asana
- Roblox goes public via direct listing.
Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Amazon and Shopify
ID: 1557583
