• Amazon workers at several warehouses went on strike on Thursday.
• The strike comes in the middle of Amazon's key holiday shopping and shipping season.
• Amazon said that it wasn't seeing an impact on its operations.

Amazon workers at seven Amazon fulfillment centers went on strike Thursday, though the retailer said it wasn't seeing effects on its holiday delivery operations.

The workers are walking off the job after Amazon refused to bargain with them over a contract, according to a statement from the Teamsters, which represents the employees.

The strike will affect three Amazon fulfillment centers in Southern California as well as one each in New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Illinois, according to the Teamsters. The union said it will also set up picket lines at other Amazon facilities.

The action comes in the middle of the key holiday shopping season. Amazon's highest quarterly revenue has historically come during the final three months of the year. This year, that period included the company's October Prime Day as well as deals for Black Friday.

"If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed," Sean O'Brien, general president of the Teamsters, said in the statement.

O'Brien said that the Teamsters "gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members."

"They ignored it," he added.

An Amazon spokesperson said Thursday morning that the company hasn't seen its operations affected by the strike.

Spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement that the Teamsters recruited non-employees to participate in the strike and intimidate Amazon employees. When Business Insider asked for evidence of those claims, an Amazon spokesperson said, "We know our employees, and we know they are not out there. Our employees repeatedly claim to management that they experience harassment from activists."

"We appreciate all our team's great work to serve their customers and communities, and are continuing to focus on getting customers their holiday orders," Nantel said.

Workers at some Starbucks stores were also preparing for a potential strike this week. On Tuesday, a union representing about 10,000 baristas said its members had voted to authorize a strike, though negotiations with Starbucks have continued and no strike date has been set.

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Amazon workers at seven warehouses walked out Thursday morning, launching a strike ahead of the holidays after Amazon failed to meet a bargaining deadline set by the Teamsters union representing the workers.

In a press release, Teamsters declared it "the largest strike against Amazon in US history." Teamsters general president, Sean O'Brien, warned shoppers of potential delays, saying "you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed."

"We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it," O’Brien said. "These greedy executives had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they’ve pushed workers to the limit and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them."

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• Boeing has resumed the production of the 767 and 777 as it gets back online after a lengthy strike.
• Following the end of the strike, the aviation giant had already restarted 737 production.
• Boeing has had a troubled 2024 after a midair blowout in January shone a light on its quality control.

Boeing has resumed its production across its range of aircraft in the Pacific Northwest factories as it gets back online following its lengthy and costly strike.

The aviation giant, which had already resumed production of its 737 Max jets, has now restarted building the 767 and 777 models again, Stephanie Pope, Boeing's COO and the CEO and president of its commercial planes division, said in a LinkedIn post.

The news follows an announcement last week that Boeing would commit $1 billion to its 787 Dreamliner manufacturing plant in South Carolina.

"Our teammates have worked methodically to warm up our factories in the Pacific Northwest, using Boeing's Safety Management System to identify and address potential issues and ensure a safe and orderly restart," she wrote in the post.

The aircraft manufacturing giant hopes to ramp up production in what has been a difficult year. In January, an Alaska Airlines flight lost a door plug during a flight, injuring several passengers and resulting in an emergency landing.

The incident highlighted Boeing's production processes and led to questions about its quality control, which led then-CEO Dave Calhoun to resign.

Boeing was also hit with several lawsuits related to the Alaska Airlines incident, as well as facing renewed scrutiny over two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

Its problems were compounded when over 30,000 factory workers went on strike for nearly seven weeks beginning in September.

Boeing now has a backlog of around 5,400 commercial aircraft worth roughly $428 billion.

"We have taken time to ensure all manufacturing teammates are current on training and certifications, while positioning inventory at the optimal levels for smooth production," Pope said in the post.

"As we move forward, we will closely track our production health performance indicators and focus on delivering safe, high-quality airplanes on time to our customers," she added.

• Starbucks' biggest workers union on Tuesday went forward to authorize a nationwide strike.
• It said that the coffee chain had not settled hundreds of unfair labor practice cases.
• Starbucks said that the union considering a strike was "disappointing."

Starbucks Workers United, the coffee chain's largest union, said workers have authorized a nationwide strike.

The union, which represents more than 10,000 baristas, said in statements on Tuesday that 98% of its member baristas had voted to strike. The group was set to meet with Starbucks later that day for a final round of bargaining.

The union told CNBC in a statement that the strike was prompted by hundreds of unfair labor practice cases that Starbucks had not settled. It also said that the company had not brought a sufficiently comprehensive pay package to the bargaining table.

Starbucks, in a statement to CNBC, said that it was "disappointing" that the union was considering a strike "rather than focusing on what have been extremely productive negotiations."

"Since April we've scheduled and attended more than eight multi-day bargaining sessions where we've reached thirty meaningful agreements on dozens of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them, including many economic issues," the company told CNBC.

Starbucks has 11,161 company-operated stores and 7,263 licensed stores in North America. As of October, 500 — or about 4.5% — of all stores were unionized.

More than 150 unionized stores went on strike in June 2023 to protest what the union called the company's "hypocritical treatment of LGBTQIA+ workers." A Starbucks spokesperson told BI at the time that the union was spreading "false information" about its benefits, policies, and negotiation efforts.

News of the possible union strike comes just a day after CEO Brian Niccol announced a change in the company's parental leave policy for US store employees.

Starting in March, Starbucks will offer up to 18 weeks of paid leave for birth parents and up to 12 weeks for nonbirth parents. The company currently offers US store employees six weeks of paid parental leave and up to 12 weeks unpaid.

The increased benefit will apply to employees averaging at least 20 hours of work a week.

"Our benefit was already the best in retail, but after hearing from some partners who shared the leave as new parents wasn't adequate, we reviewed the program and have decided we're making a change," Niccol wrote in his announcement Monday.

Starbucks had a lackluster fourth quarter. On October 29, it posted a 7% decline in comparable sales from last year, including a 6% drop at its US stores. Sales in China declined 14% in the same period.

Its net revenue was down 3% from last year, to $9.1 billion.

The company's stock is down about 1.7% since the start of the year.

Representatives of Starbucks and Starbucks Workers United did not respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Israel launched widespread strikes on Syria to wipe out the remnants of the Assad regime's military.
• The strikes targeted Syrian weapon stockpiles after a rebel offensive ousted President Bashar Assad.
• Israeli warplanes and missile ships destroyed Syrian aircraft, naval ships, and weapon depots.

The Israel Defense Forces launched widespread strikes across Syria over the past two days to wipe out what remained of the Assad regime's military arsenal.

The Israeli Air Force carried out about 480 strikes targeting most of the country's strategic weapon stockpiles left behind after rebels forced Syrian leader Bashar Assad to flee the country.

About 350 of the strikes were crewed aircraft targeting Syrian military assets, including aircraft, ammunition depots, storage facilities, and missile and radar systems. The Israeli Navy also destroyed several military vessels docked at two Syrian naval ports. The Israeli army seized strategic positions in the Golan Heights abandoned by Syrian troops.

Israeli officials said the extensive strikes on Syria were intended to prevent the Assad government's military infrastructure and weapons from being used by extremists and potential foes. Israel is exploiting the Assad regime's fall to enhance its security in the long term as it uses blistering force to cripple Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The fall of Assad

After a decadeslong dictatorship, rebel forces seized control of the Syrian capital of Damascus over the weekend, forcing Assad to relinquish power and flee the country.

"We declare Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad," Hassan Abdul-Ghani, commander of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, wrote in a post on social media. "To the displaced people around the world, free Syria awaits you."

Former Syrian prime minister Ghazi al-Jalali remained in the country after the collapse of the Assad regime, saying the government is willing to cooperate and support "any leadership chosen by the Syrian people."

Creating a 'sterile defense zone'

While Israel supported ousting Assad, a staunch ally of Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the situation in Syria is still "fraught with significant dangers" from the extremists now governing the country.

In the days after the dayslong rebel offensive ousted the Syrian dictator, Israel launched hundreds of strikes targeting Syrian military assets over 48 hours to prevent them "from falling into the hands of terrorist elements." HTS publicly split with the Al Qaeda affiliate from which it formed, but US officials believe it may still have links to Al Qaeda leaders.

"We have no intention of interfering in Syria's internal affairs, but we clearly intend to do what is necessary to ensure our security," Netanyahu said.

"I authorized the air force to bomb strategic military capabilities left by the Syrian army so that they would not fall into the hands of the jihadists," he said, adding that Israel "would like to form relations with the new regime in Syria."

The IDF said the strikes were part of a larger-scale mission known as Operation Bashan Arrow, intended to create a "sterile defense zone" by neutralizing potential threats from the neighboring country.

Sinking Syrian warships

Israeli forces attacked key Syrian naval facilities in the port cities of Al-Bayda and Latakia late Tuesday, where more than a dozen Syrian naval vessels were docked.

Photos of the decimated port showed half-submerged Syrian warships. Some of the damaged vessels were Osa-class missile boats, Soviet-era vessels whose 30mm turrets and mounted missile launchers could be seen in the wreckage.

The Syrian navy, the smallest branch of the country's armed forces, operated over a dozen of the high-speed — albeit outdated — vessels developed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz said Israeli Navy missile ships "destroyed Syria's navy overnight and with great success." It's not clear how many Syrian vessels were destroyed by Israeli warships in the overnight attack.

Satellite images of Latakia, a former stronghold of Assad, showed the charred wreckage of the naval ships. The IDF wrote in a post on X that "dozens of sea-to-sea missiles" with "significant explosive payloads" were also destroyed.

Destroying Syrian military aircraft

The IAF carried out an airstrike on the Mezzeh Air Base in Damascus, once a key stronghold of the Assad regime's air force.

At least three major Syrian army air bases were attacked by Israeli warplanes, damaging dozens of helicopters and fighter jets, The Times of Israel reported. Locals living near the bases said they heard several explosions after the Israeli strikes appeared to ignite the ammunition stored there, the Associated Press reported.

Dismantling Syrian military infrastructure

In addition to decimating Syria's aerial and naval fleet, the IDF said it carried out strikes on 130 military assets, such as firing positions, antiaircraft batteries, missile and radar systems, and weapons production sites.

Crippling Syria's chemical weapons infrastructure

Israeli forces also destroyed the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center in Damascus, a key facility thought to be testing and operating the country's covert chemical and biological weapons programs under the Assad regime.

The Barzeh facility was previously bombarded in 2018 by US, UK, and French forces in response to a poison sarin gas attack in Douma, Syria. The US found Assad's government responsible for the April 2018 chemical warfare attack that killed at least 40 people and injured over 100.

However, the head of the center's polymers department told Reuters at the time that the facility, now reduced to rubble, was used to research medicinal components that couldn't be imported, such as anti-venom and cancer treatments.

'Changing the face of the Middle East'

The fall of the Syrian regime weakens Iran's regional influence and could pose logistical and strategic challenges to Iran's regional proxies like the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

"The collapse of the Syrian regime is a direct result of the severe blows with which we have struck Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran," Netanyahu said during a Monday press conference. "The axis has not yet disappeared, but as I promised — we are changing the face of the Middle East."

Despite the widespread strikes across Syria, Israeli military officials said the country's armed forces were operating beyond the Israeli-occupied demilitarized buffer zone in Golan Heights but not toward the Syrian capital.

"IDF forces are not advancing towards Damascus. This is not something we are doing or pursuing in any way," IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said at a briefing. "We are not involved in what's happening in Syria internally, we are not a side in this conflict, and we do not have any interest other than protecting our borders and the security of our citizens."

Katz, Israel's defense minister, said the country was advancing beyond Golan Heights to impose a "security zone free of heavy strategic weapons and terrorist infrastructures" in southern Syria.

"With regard to what will be in the future, I'm not a prophet," Katz said. "It is important right now to take all necessary steps in the context of the security of Israel."

• Jeffrey Katzenberg, the cofounder of DreamWorks, said Hollywood bigshots are embracing AI.
• He said the top showrunners and creators find AI an "amazing resource."
• During the monthslong WGA strike last year, writers opposed the adoption of AI.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, the cofounder of DreamWorks, said Hollywood is warming up to the use of artificial intelligence.

Speaking at Fortune's Brainstorm AI conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, he said top Hollywood showrunners and creators are embracing AI.

"I would say almost across the board they have all talked about how the AI tools today have been helpful to them," Katzenberg said.

"They have seen them as a resource and an asset that have made them more productive," he said about AI tools, adding that with the use of AI, creators have been "able to widen the diversity of their work, the quality of their work."

"They find these tools an amazing resource for them — and it's not constraining them, it's inspiring them," he added.

DreamWorks Animation is the force behind animated classics like "Shrek," "Kung Fu Panda," and "How to Train Your Dragon."

Katzenberg's comments come after Hollywood writers spent months on strike last year, partially in reaction to the use of AI in their industry.

More than 11,000 film and TV screenwriters went on strike from May to September 2023 after the Writers Guild of America, or WGA, could not agree on a labor contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP.

The strike was aimed at securing better wages and fairer work practices, and at prompting more regulation of the use of AI in film writing and production.

The strike led to key wins: The WGA agreement with AMPTP said the AMPTP members can use AI-generated material but can't write or rewrite literary material with AI.

Under the agreement, AI-generated material won't be considered source material, a rule that will protect writers from having their credit undermined by AI. Writers also can't be required to use AI software.

Katzenberg previously said AI could reduce the cost of animated films by 90%.

"I think AI as a creative tool, think of that as a new form, a new paintbrush or new camera, has so much opportunity around it," he said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore in November 2023.

"Well, the good old days when, you know, I made an animated movie, it took 500 artists five years to make a world-class animated movie," he said.

"I don't think it will take 10% of that three years out from now," he added.

Representatives for DreamWorks didn't respond to a request for comment from BI, sent outside regular business hours.

• South Korea's largest labor union has issued an indefinite general strike.
• The call went out to its 1.1M members after South Korea's president declared martial law.
• It said the strike would last until the president stepped down.

South Korea's largest labor union launched an indefinite general strike late on Tuesday, calling for the country's embattled president to resign after he declared martial law.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions issued the call in a Facebook post to its 1.1 million members, saying the strike would start Wednesday at 9 a.m. local time and would last until the president's "regime" abolished martial law and the president stepped down.

President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday, only to rescind the decree six hours later. It was a stunning move that threw the Asian country into political and economic disarray.

The decree, which suspended civilian government functions and established temporary military control, was South Korea's first declaration of martial law since the country's democratization in 1987.

Yoon justified the move in a televised address on Tuesday, saying it was necessary to counter North Korea and "anti-state forces," while also criticizing the country's opposition politicians.

In the aftermath, the South Korean won dropped to its lowest level since October 2022, but trimmed losses in Asian hours.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the Korean Confederation of Trade Union described Yoon's declaration of martial law as "anti-democratic" and one that South Korea's "people will not forgive."

Andrew Minjun Park, a 27-year-old graduate student at Seoul National University, who joined protests on Tuesday night, told BI that the president had "crossed the line" when he involved the military.

Meanwhile, South Korea's former foreign minister, Kang Kyung-hwa, told CNN that the president's move and the way it was handled was "completely unacceptable" and an "aberration."

According to the Yonhap news agency, 10 senior aides working for Yoon, including his chief of staff, offered to resign on Wednesday.

Calls for the president's resignation have been growing. All six opposition parties filed a motion to impeach Yoon on Wednesday, with plans to put it to a vote on Friday or Saturday.

To remove him from office, a two-thirds majority in Parliament and at least six justices of the nine-member Constitutional Court would be required, per the Associated Press.

Yoon has been dubbed a "lame-duck president" because he holds the nation's highest position without a majority in the legislature.

Robert E. Kelly, a professor of political science at Pusan National University, told India's WION news on Wednesday that Yoon's "approval rating is under 20%, so he has no strong public backing to help keep him in office to overcome this."

"If he decides to stay, he'll almost certainly face impeachment," Kelly added.

• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called for a culture change amid the company's security challenges.
• The company has contended with the global CrowdStrike outage and vulnerability to Chinese hacks.
• Microsoft has accepted responsibility for security flaws, acknowledging breaches by hackers.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, doesn't have the best track record regarding security.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the company needs to change that. "That's what will be culture change," he said in a recent Wired interview.

Microsoft has faced a series of high-profile cybersecurity challenges over the past year.

In July, the company was at the center of a global IT outage caused by a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. In March, a report from the US Department of Homeland Security flagged Microsoft's security systems as inadequate and called for an "overhaul," noting that the company was particularly vulnerable to attacks from a Chinese hacking group called Storm-0588.

Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, acknowledged these flaws in a written statement to the Department of Homeland Security in June. "Before I say anything else, I think it's especially important for me to say that Microsoft accepts responsibility for each and every one of the issues cited in the CSRB's report," he wrote.

Earlier in the year, Microsoft said that its systems had also been compromised by the Russian hacking group Midnight Blizzard, which accessed a "very small percentage" of corporate email accounts. This group was also responsible for the 2020 attack on SolarWinds, a major IT firm that counts Microsoft as one of its primary clients.

Since taking the helm in 2014, Nadella has been known for leading empathetically and emphasizing that change wouldn't come from blaming employees. "This is not about a witch hunt internally at Microsoft," he told Wired. However, he said that "perverse incentives" often lead companies to prioritize product development over securing existing products.

That mindset may have played a role in the SolarWinds attack. A ProPublica report in June found that Microsoft knowingly hid a security flaw in one of its services to avoid jeopardizing its chances of securing government investment in its cloud business. The flaw was later exploited by the Russian hackers behind the attack.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The prolific hacking group broke into Caesars Entertainment, Coinbase, DoorDash, Mailchimp, Riot Games, Twilio (twice), and dozens more. 

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