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    Volkswagen Unions Begin Short Strikes and Threaten More

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    Workers at nine of the automaker’s German factories walked off their jobs for several hours, and warned they would escalate the action if their demands went unmet.Volkswagen workers across Germany escalated their labor dispute with management by walking off their jobs for several hours on Monday, and their union threatened longer strikes if their demands were not met.The automaker is in the middle of labor negotiations with IG Metall, the union representing most of its workers, as the company tries to reduce costs in an effort to return it to profitability. Volkswagen is seeking 10-percent wage cuts and threatening to close factories in Germany, the first such move in its 87-year history.Thousands of workers at nine of the company’s plants in Germany, as well as several other subsidiaries that are covered under a wage agreement with the automaker, staged two-hour strikes on Monday, demanding that Volkswagen guarantee their jobs and keep its factories open.IG Metall has threatened to start longer walkouts, or open-ended strikes, unless it is able to reach an agreement with Volkswagen managers.“If necessary, this will be the toughest collective-bargaining battle Volkswagen has ever seen,” said Thorsten Gröger, the chief negotiator and district manager for the union. “Volkswagen will have to decide at the negotiating table how long and how intense this dispute has to be.”The labor battle, the company’s first involving strikes since 2018, comes as Volkswagen, Germany’s leading automaker, faces slowing demand for its cars in Europe and Asia, as well as increased competition from Chinese automakers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Washington Curtails Intel’s Chip Grant After Company Stumbles

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      The Biden administration is reducing its award to the chip maker, partly to account for a multibillion-dollar military contract.The Biden administration plans to reduce Intel’s preliminary $8.5 billion federal CHIPS grant, a move that follows the California-based company’s investment delays and broader business struggles.Intel, the biggest recipient of money under the CHIPS Act, will see its funding drop to less than $8 billion from the $8.5 billion that was announced earlier this year, four people familiar with the grant said. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the final contract had not yet been signed. The change in terms takes into account a $3 billion contract that Intel has been offered to produce chips for the U.S. military, two of these people said.The government’s decision to reduce the size of the grant follows Intel’s move to delay some of its planned investments in chip facilities in Ohio. The company now plans to finish that project by the end of the decade instead of 2025. The chip maker has been under pressure to reduce costs after posting its biggest quarterly loss in the company’s 56-year history.The move by the Biden administration also takes into account Intel’s technology road map and customer demand. Intel has been working to improve its technological capacity to catch up to rivals like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, but it has struggled to convince customers that it can match TSMC’s technology.Intel’s troubles have been a blow to the Biden administration’s plans to rev up domestic chip manufacturing. In March, President Biden traveled to Arizona to announce Intel’s multibillion-dollar award and said the company’s manufacturing investments would transform the semiconductor industry. Intel’s investment was at the forefront of the administration’s ambition to return chip manufacturing to the United States from Asia. The CHIPS Act, a bipartisan bill passed in 2022, provided $39 billion in funding to subsidize the construction of facilities to help the United States reduce its reliance on foreign production of the tiny, critical electronics that power everything from iPads to dishwashers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Fashion World Fears High Tariffs in Trump Administration

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      President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened a tax of at least 60 percent on goods from China — a move with the potential to decimate small American brands.In the days after Donald J. Trump won the presidency, several small American fashion designers placed anxious calls to overseas manufacturing partners. Spurred by fears that the president-elect will make good on promises to raise tariffs, thereby upending their operations, they scrambled to find alternatives.The tariffs “would be devastating,” according to Chris Gentile, owner of the Brooklyn-based Pilgrim Surf + Supply, which produces items like padded work coats and fleece zip-ups in China. “I don’t know how we could function.”Throughout his campaign, Mr. Trump threatened to levy a 10 to 20 percent tax on most foreign products and, most significantly, at least a 60 percent tariff on goods from China. The thinking is that sharp taxes would compel companies to begin producing in America again. In conversations with clothing designers over the past week, that logic was met with extreme skepticism.Some designers are not convinced that talk of dizzying tariffs will survive past the campaign trail. But for smaller, independent apparel businesses that rely on the comparative affordability and high quality of Chinese clothing manufacturers, the mere threat of increased taxes on foreign goods was enough to plan for the worst.“We’ve established relationships with these factories,” Mr. Gentile said. “They’ve become almost like family.”A still-scrappy entrepreneur 12 years in, Mr. Gentile doesn’t have an army of supply-chain wonks to ferret out new factories. The task of corresponding with his manufacturers falls largely on him. He’s spent untold hours working with his Chinese production partners on how to set in the sleeves of his shirts just so or how poofy a down jacket should be.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      5 Things to Know About Trump’s Tariff Threats

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      The president-elect says that tariff is “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.” You may be hearing it a lot.President-elect Donald J. Trump has professed a belief in the power of tariffs for decades. Now, as he prepares to take office, they are a central part of his economic plan.Mr. Trump argues that steep tariffs on foreign goods will help benefit U.S. manufacturing and create jobs. His proposals would raise tariffs to a level not seen in generations. Many economists have warned of potentially harmful consequences from such a move, including higher costs for American households and businesses, and globally destabilizing trade wars.Here are five crucial things to know about Mr. Trump’s sweeping trade plans.Mr. Trump has floated several hefty tariff plans.While campaigning for the White House, Mr. Trump offered up a running list of tariffs. He talked about a “universal” tariff of 10 to 20 percent on most foreign products. He has proposed tariffs of 60 percent or more on Chinese goods. And he has suggested removing permanent normal trading relations with China, which would result in an immediate increase in tariffs on Chinese imports.Mr. Trump has also promoted the idea of a “reciprocal” tariff, in which the United States would match the tariff rates that other countries put on American goods. He has suggested using tariff revenue to replace income taxes. And he has threatened tariffs of 100, 200 or even 1,000 percent on Mexico, saying the country should do more to stop flows of migrants and shipments of Chinese cars.The Biden administration has also raised tariffs on goods from China, but Mr. Trump’s plans are much larger — affecting trillions of dollars of products, rather than tens of billions.Mr. Trump says foreign companies pay the tariffs. That’s usually wrong.A tariff is a tax that is put on a product when it crosses a border. For instance, a company that brings its product into the United States — the importer — actually pays the tariff to the U.S. government.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Volkswagen Profit Shrinks as Unions Threaten Strike

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      Germany’s biggest automaker said its profit dropped 42 percent in the third quarter, as union leaders warned that workers were ready to walk out over a wage dispute.Volkswagen reported a 42 percent drop in quarterly profit on Wednesday, while emphasizing an “urgent need” to cut costs and gain efficiency in a challenging marketplace as it considers plant closures and layoffs in Germany.The automaker’s negotiator pointed to the company’s weak earnings ahead of his meeting with union leaders, who warned of imminent strikes if a solution to cut costs and restructure the brand was not found.The Volkswagen Group, which owns 10 brands, including Audi and Porsche, is Germany’s largest industrial employer, with 120,000 people working for its eponymous core brand. The country’s vision of itself as an economic powerhouse and automotive giant is also deeply intertwined with Volkswagen, and local economies across the country depend on the company and its well-paid workers.Representatives from the automaker and IG Metall, the union representing most of its workers, convened for a second round of wage negotiations on Wednesday in a conference room in the Volkswagen Arena, the stadium of the company’s professional soccer team, VfL Wolfsburg.Before the talks, Volkswagen reported that profit fell to 2.86 billion euros, or $3.1 billion, for the months of August to September, its lowest level in three years. The company is struggling against falling demand in China, the world’s largest car market, and high costs, especially in its homeland, Germany.“The situation is getting worse,” Arne Meiswinkel, the chief of personnel at Volkswagen, who is leading negotiations for the company, told reporters before the negotiations began.But union leaders insisted that a guarantee by the company that all 10 of its factories in Germany would remain open was a prerequisite for them to stay at the negotiating table. The union is prevented from staging any strikes until the end of November, but leaders said that they would begin preparing walkouts unless their demand was met.“We expect Volkswagen to declare its willingness to enter into negotiations with us on a viable future concept for all sites,” Thorsten Gröger, chief negotiator of IG Metall union, told reporters ahead of the talks.“Otherwise, I say quite clearly, we will have to plan the further escalation with our negotiating and bargaining committee,” he said.On Monday, the company’s top employee representative said that management had informed the works council that it was considering shutting down as many as three factories in Germany and laying off tens of thousands of workers. The closures would be the first in the 87-year history of the company and would be a further blow to Germany’s stagnant economy. More

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      Trump Attacks Bipartisan Semiconductor Law on Joe Rogan Podcast

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      Former President Donald J. Trump on Friday blasted the CHIPS and Science Act, a bipartisan law aimed at reducing America’s reliance on Asia for semiconductors by providing billions in subsidies to encourage companies to manufacture more chips in the United States.“That chip deal is so bad,” Mr. Trump said during a nearly three-hour episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “We put up billions of dollars for rich companies.”Mr. Trump argued that the federal government could have imposed a series of tariffs to make chip manufacturers spend more of their own money to build plants in the United States. He also argued that the law would not make the “good companies” invest in the United States.“You didn’t have to put up 10 cents,” Mr. Trump said. “You tariff it so high that they will come and build their chip companies for nothing.”That argument does not take into account how reliant the United States is on foreign nations for chips, particularly those made in Taiwan. Semiconductors have become critical to the U.S. economy, given that they are used in everything from cars to weapons systems and computers. Yet only about 10 percent of the world’s semiconductors are produced in the United States, down from about 37 percent in 1990.America’s heavy reliance on Taiwan’s semiconductors has been a growing source of concern among U.S. officials, given China’s ongoing threats to invade the self-governing island.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Boeing Union Workers Reject Contract

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      The vote, hours after Boeing reported a $6.1 billion loss, will extend a monthlong strike at factories where the company makes its best-selling commercial plane.Boeing’s largest union rejected a tentative labor contract on Wednesday, a blow to the aerospace manufacturer and the Biden administration, which had intervened in the hopes of ending an economically damaging strike that began more than five weeks ago.The contract, the second that workers have voted down, was defeated by a wide margin, with 64 percent of those voting opposing the deal, according to the union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The union represents about 33,000 workers, but it did not disclose how many voted on Wednesday.“This wasn’t enough for our members,” said Jon Holden, president of District 751 of the union, which represents the vast majority of the workers. “They’ve spoken loudly and we’re going to go back to the table.”The vote is a setback for Boeing’s new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, who is trying to restore Boeing’s reputation and business, which he described in detail earlier on Wednesday. In remarks to workers and investors, Mr. Ortberg said Boeing needed to undergo “fundamental culture change” to stabilize the business and to improve execution.“Our leaders, from me on down, need to be closely integrated with our business and the people who are doing the design and production of our products,” he said. “We need to be on the factory floors, in the back shops and in our engineering labs. We need to know what’s going on, not only with our products, but with our people.”Mr. Ortberg delivered that message alongside the company’s quarterly financial results, which included a loss of more than $6.1 billion. This month, Boeing also announced plans to cut its work force by about 10 percent, which amounts to 17,000 jobs. Boeing also recently disclosed plans to raise as much as $25 billion by selling debt or stock over the next three years as it tries to avoid a damaging downgrade to its credit rating.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What to Know: How Israel Could Retaliate Against Iran

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      Iran has a number of sensitive sites, including oil infrastructure, military installations and nuclear facilities.Iran and Israel avoided direct confrontation for years, fighting a shadow war of secret sabotage and assassinations. But the two countries are now moving closer to open conflict, after the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon this week and Tehran’s ballistic missile barrage on Israel, its second in less than six months.Israel seems prepared to strike Iran directly, in a more vigorous and public way than it has before. Iran has a number of sensitive targets, including oil production sites, military bases and nuclear sites.Here’s an overview of what an Israeli attack could look like.Iran’s oil industry More

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      Harris, in Michigan, Tries to Head Off Trump’s Attacks Over Gas Cars

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      Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday sought to rebut a frequent argument from former President Donald J. Trump that she would mandate the end of gasoline-powered cars, issuing a rare direct response to her White House rival’s exaggerations and misleading claims.Speaking at a rally in Flint, a mid-Michigan city whose onetime cadre of thriving auto factories never recovered from closures in the 1980s, Ms. Harris tried to reassure voters in the state, who are being bombarded by Trump ads that claim she “wants to end all gas-powered cars.”“Michigan, let us be clear,” she said. “Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive. But here’s what I will do. I will invest in communities like Flint.”The Harris campaign rally in Flint, Mich., on Friday. The vice president’s campaign has been pitching her as the candidate for the working and middle classes in the northern battleground states.Emily Elconin for The New York TimesThe politics of the nation’s slow march toward more electric vehicles have been tricky in Michigan, a battleground state that is home to the nation’s three major automakers. As the climate crisis has worsened, President Biden’s administration has required emissions standards that will most likely require about half of the new cars sold in the United States to emit zero emissions by 2032.To reach that goal, the Biden administration has offered incentives to manufacturers who produce electric vehicles and tax credits for consumers who buy them.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More