NEWS
Around North America in seven stories… TECHNOLOGY
FOOD & DRINK
STARBUCKS LEADERSHIP SWITCH CO F F E E G I A N T Starbucks has changed its leadership. The company’s North American president Rossann Williams has left Starbucks to be replaced by the head of the coffee chain’s Asia Pacific (APAC) division. Sara Trilling, who has been with Starbucks for two decades and previously oversaw the APAC region, has succeeded Williams, with the event marking the most recent change to the company’s leadership under interim CEO Howard Schultz. Williams has a history in the retail sector and has worked for Starbucks since 2004, while being one of the public faces of the company over the course of 2021.
APPLE WORKER’S FIRST VOTE FOR UNION A PPL E WORKERS in Towson (Maryland) represent the third of the company’s stores to launch a push for a union this year, but have become the first to successfully hold a vote to establish the tech giant’s first retail union in the US. Short for Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, the Apple Core
union stated that the bid was “about us as workers gaining access to rights that we do not currently have”, but that it did not want to “go against or create conflict with our management”. This action follows the move towards unionization by two other Apple stores in Atlanta and New York.
TRANSPORT
TESLA STAFF REDUCTION TO IMPACT WORKFORCE E LO N MUSK has said that Tesla will reduce its salaried workforce by approximately 10 percent in the next three months. At the same time, the company will expand the number of hourly employees hired. After two former company employees launched a lawsuit against 6 | North America Outlook issue 10
Tesla regarding alleged breached US labor laws, Musk sought to clarify how many Tesla workers will lose their jobs. At an event hosted by Bloomberg, Musk stated the numbers and prospective rise in hourly workers. Recently, Musk has been under scrutiny when it comes to the treatment of employees, and this action will impact around 3.5 percent of Tesla’s overall workforce.
