Jan. 10, 2021 7:00 am ET
A chip shortage that has disrupted vehicle production in other parts of the globe is reaching U.S. shores, stifling output for major car companies and dimming prospects for a smooth recovery from the pandemic. Ford Motor Co. is planning to idle a Louisville, Ky., factory for a week starting Monday, because of parts shortages stemming from limited supplies of semiconductors now vital to everything from display screens to transmissions. The move will lead to the temporary layoffs of about 3,900 workers at the plant, which builds two popular SUVs, the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair. Honda Motor Co. , Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and others are also wrestling with the shortage, leading them to reduce output on everything from big pickup trucks to compact sedans.
Low on Workers, Manufacturers Recruit Their Executives for the Factory Floor
Covid, child care and competition from e-commerce warehouses contribute to labor shortages at many factories
Yankee Candle executives’ new side gigs include tasks such as packing the company’s products into gift baskets. Photo: Kayana Szymczak for The Wall Street Journal By Updated Jan. 9, 2021 11:38 pm ET
Wendy Marcus was midway through a recent meeting with senior leaders at Newell Brands Inc. when word came that she needed to leave immediately.
The Newell-owned factory that makes Yankee Candles was once again short on workers, and the plant needed Ms. Marcus, an R&D manager, on the assembly line to help pack the famously scented knickknacks into gift baskets.
Jan. 7, 2021 8:46 pm ET
In the wake of the riot at the Capitol, companies moved to cut ties with President Trump and his supporters and fired workers who participated.
Facebook Inc. banned Mr. Trump indefinitely and Canada-based Shopify Inc. closed online stores associated with Mr. Trumpâs campaign and businesses. Publisher Simon & Schuster said it would drop a coming book by Sen. Josh Hawley, a key backer of Mr. Trumpâs election claims. Dozens more executives and trade groups denounced the takeover of the Capitol and called for the removal of the president.
A number of companies said they fired employees who participated in the riot at the Capitol after seeing employees in photos and videos posted to social media.
Jan. 8, 2021 8:22 am ET
A bottleneck at the National Archives is delaying benefits claims for 32,000 military veterans, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Covid-19 pandemic shut the National Personnel Records Center, a unit of the Archives, for months last year except for emergency requests. After briefly operating at low capacity, it once again closed in the fall for all but emergency requests.
A veteran’s record may need certification by the Archives as one of the first steps in the benefits process. Veterans who left the service after 2000 likely have digitized records that can be more easily accessed for certification purposes, but many older veterans’ records are kept in old-fashioned paper archives. When one of those veterans makes a claim, the center’s archivists have to retrieve those records by hand from among the 60 million maintained at the facility in St. Louis.