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By MAE ANDERSON

NEW YORK (AP) — The UPS cargo plane crash on Tuesday at the company’s global aviation hub in Kentucky, which killed at least nine, will temporarily disrupt the supply chain and result in some shipping delays.

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But UPS says it has contingency plans in place, and experts say the impact should be cleared up before the peak holiday season.

The plane crashed Tuesday evening as it was departing for Honolulu from UPS Worldport, UPS’ largest shipping hub, at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. Package sorting at the center was halted late Tuesday and the halt continued on Wednesday. About 416,000 packages can be sorted at the facility per hour, according to a UPS fact sheet. read more

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Business Writer

Starbucks’ union members have voted to strike at the company’s U.S. stores next week unless it finalizes a contract agreement, the union said Wednesday.

The strike would begin on Nov. 13, which is the day Starbucks plans to distribute free, reusable red cups. Red Cup Day, a Starbucks tradition since 2018, is typically one of the company’s busiest days of the year.

Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing baristas, didn’t say how many stores would be impacted. But it said workers in at least 25 cities planned to strike and more locations could be added if the union doesn’t see “substantial progress” toward finalizing a contract.

Around 550 of Starbucks’ 10,000 company-operated U.S. stores are currently unionized. More stores have voted to unionize since 2021, but Starbucks closed 59 unionized stores in September as part of a larger restructuring.

The union and the company have yet to agree to a labor contract. In December 2023, Starbucks vowed to finalize an agreement by the end of 2024. But the company ousted Laxman Narasimhan, the CEO who made that promise, last fall. The union said progress has stalled under Brian Niccol, the company’s new chairman and CEO. read more

Food giant Frito-Lay — maker of the popular snacks Cheetos, Doritos and Lay’s potato chips — announced Tuesday it will shutter two of its manufacturing and warehouse facilities in Orlando, eliminating 500 jobs.

In a letter to the state’s Department of Commerce, the company said it planned to terminate 454 positions this week at its facility off Silver Star Road.

The positions include mechanics, packagers, machine operators, handlers, managers, maintenance workers and the plant’s director, wrote Bonny Bourque of Frito-Lay’s Southeast Division.

The affected employees have been told they will be provided with 60 days of severance pay, according to the letter.

In a separate letter on Tuesday to the state, Bourque said the company also will stop its operations at its smaller facility at 2000 Parks Oaks Ave. by May 9 and eliminate 46 jobs. Those positions include handlers, supervisors, and warehouse workers.

Based in Plano, Texas, Frito-Lay is part of PepsiCo Foods and has nearly three dozen manufacturing plants across the country and Canada. It employs about 60,000 people in total. read more

By BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk turned off many potential buyers of his Tesla cars and sent sales plunging with his foray into politics. But the stock has soared anyway and now he wants the company to pay him more — a lot more.

Shareholders gathering Thursday for Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, will decide in a proxy vote whether to grant Musk, the company’s CEO and already the richest person in the world, enough stock to potentially make him history’s first trillionaire.

It’s a vote that has sparked heated debate on both sides of the issue, even drawing the pope’s comments on it as an example of income inequality.

Several pension funds have come out against the package, arguing that the board of directors is too beholden to Musk, his behavior too reckless lately and the riches offered too much.

Supporters say Musk is a genius who is the only person capable of ushering in a Tesla-dominated future in which hundreds of thousands of self-driving Tesla cars — many without steering wheels — will ferry people and humanoid Tesla robots will march around factories and homes, picking up boxes and watering plants. The pay is necessary to incentivize him, they say, and keep him focused. read more

By YURI KAGEYAMA, Associated Press Business Writer

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota reported a 7% year-on-year drop in profit for April-September on Wednesday, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs slammed Japanese automakers.

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Net profit for the April-September period at Toyota Motor Corp. totaled 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion), down from 1.9 trillion yen a year earlier.

But the maker of the Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models lifted its profit forecast for the full fiscal year ending in March 2026 to 2.93 trillion yen ($19 billion), citing better vehicle sales and cost-cutting efforts. read more