Things To Do In SW Florida

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Auto workers held waves of walkouts. Hollywood actors and writers picketed for months. And healthcare, education and hospitality employees also withheld their labor while calling for improved pay and job conditions.

The number of U.S. workers on strike more than doubled last year. According to an annual report from the Labor Action Tracker, a collaboration between researchers at Cornell University and the University of Illinois, those involved in work stoppages climbed 141% in 2023 to a total of 539,000 striking workers — up from 224,000 in 2022.

This jump can be largely credited to big, high-profile work stoppages, the Thursday report notes. Strikes from unions such as United Auto Workers, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and United Teachers Los Angeles accounted for nearly 65% of the striking workers.

Johnnie Kallas, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois who founded the Labor Action Tracker in 2021, noted that the U.S. hasn’t seen this many striking workers for several years — and pointed to 2023’s strength across the private sector, in particular. read more

It’s a good week to buy big ships as Royal Caribbean Group announced it had ordered a seventh Oasis-class ship to be constructed following the debut this year of the Port Canaveral-bound Utopia of the Seas.

“While we eagerly anticipate the debut of Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas this summer, we’re already dreaming up her sister ship and the next installation in the brand’s extremely popular Oasis Class,” said Jason Liberty, president and CEO of the parent company to Royal Caribbean International as well as the Celebrity and Silversea cruise bands.

It’s the second major ship announcement this week following Carnival Corp.’s order of a fourth Excel-class ship for Carnival Cruise Line.

Carnival Cruise Line to get 4th Excel-class ship, sister to Canaveral’s Mardi Gras

Royal executives in the last year have hinted that Oasis class ships might not be done despite the introduction this year of Icon of the Seas, the first of three in the larger Icon class.

Now the yet-to-be-named sister ship to the five existing Oasis-class ships as well as the under construction Utopia of the Seas  will be constructed at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in St. Nazaire, France with an expected completion in 2028. The announcement is contingent on securing financing for the order, but is expected to be complete later this year, according to the cruise line group. read more

By TOM KRISHER (AP Auto Writer)

DETROIT (AP) — Last fall’s contentious United Auto Workers’ strike changed Ford’s relationship with the union to the point where it will “think carefully” about where it builds future vehicles, Ford’s top executive said Thursday.

CEO Jim Farley told the Wolfe Research Global Auto Conference in New York that the company always took pride in its relationship with the UAW, having avoided strikes since the 1970s.

But last year, Ford’s highly profitable factory in Louisville, Kentucky, was the first truck plant that the UAW shut down with a strike.

Farley said as the company looks at the transition from internal combustion to electric vehicles, “we have to think carefully about our (manufacturing) footprint.”

Ford, Farley said, decided to build all of its highly profitable big pickup trucks in the U.S., and by far has the most union members — 57,000 — of any Detroit automaker. This came at a higher cost than competitors, who went through bankruptcy and built truck plants in Mexico, he said. But Ford thought it was the “right kind of cost,” Farley said. read more