Articles for J. Dale Shoemaker

Mar 22

2023

Yet another subsidy for Moog

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency on Wednesday rubber-stamped nearly $3 million in tax breaks for Moog, the defense contractor based in Elma. It was the 14th round of assistance from the agency since the 1970s. The IDA has now approved $12.8 million in subsidies for six Moog projects since 2006. Moog, a profitable company that netted $155 million last year, has won federal contracts in the past decade totaling more than $6 billion. The company manufactures parts for fighter jets, missile launchers, rocket ships and submarines. Federal contracts make up about half of its total business, while private aviation,[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Mar 20

2023

Moog seeking 14th tax subsidy from IDA

Moog Inc., one of Western New York’s largest employers, is a highly profitable company, netting $155 million last year alone. That’s partly due to the billions in federal defense contracts it’s landed over the past decade. Yet time and time again — 13 times since 1973 — Moog has gone before the Erie County Industrial Development Agency seeking — and receiving — millions in tax breaks. It’s received nearly $10 million in subsidies since 2006. The company is headed back to the IDA on Wednesday asking for a 14th round of subsidies. Moog’s request for $2.9 million in sales[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Mar 15

2023

Commitment to diversity on stadium project

State and local officials on Wednesday pledged that construction of the new Buffalo Bills stadium will include opportunities for local businesses owned by women and people of color — and that they’re working with local unions to diversify their ranks ahead of the groundbreaking. Officials also said the new stadium in Orchard Park will include additional bus service for Bills fans who can’t or don’t want to drive to games. Those commitments came as the Erie County Stadium Corp. — a subsidiary of the state Empire State Development Corp. — met to approve a framework for the $1.4 billion stadium[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Mar 8

2023

Union busting hamstrings adoption agency

The complicated process of adopting a child was upended last year after Western New York’s largest adoption agency lost a third of its staff, an exodus triggered by what one labor attorney called the worst case of union busting she has seen. Adoption STAR, founded in 2000 in Amherst, fired four staff members last April who were attempting to organize a union. The firings resulted in an exodus of the agency’s staff — 13 out of approximately three dozen employees. The departures included the agency’s executive director — who left a month after the firings — and an associate director.[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 22

2023

Ryan wants Tesla firings investigated

State Senator Sean Ryan has called on New York’s economic development agency to investigate Tesla’s firing of more than 40 employees last week in the wake of a union organizing drive at its South Buffalo plant. In a related development, attorneys for Tesla Workers United amended one of its complaint against the company with the National Labor Relations Board. The union charges that at least 25 of those fired last week were in retaliation for the organizing effort. Ryan, in a letter to Empire State Development President and CEO Hope Knight and Fort Schuyler Management Corp. Vice Chair Kristin Pound,[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 21

2023

Allegations of racism at Tesla plant

Black employees at Tesla’s Gigafactory in South Buffalo have alleged they’re routinely subjected to racist treatment by managers, problems they say have persisted since the plant opened five years ago. Seven current and former Tesla employees, all of whom are Black, told Investigative Post the treatment they’ve experienced has ranged from offensive remarks to being repeatedly passed over for promotions. In one case, five employees recounted instances where groups of Black men were having conversations on the factory floor, only to be told by management they weren’t allowed to do that because “the optics looked bad” and they looked “like[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 17

2023

Workers dispute Tesla’s version of firings

Tesla has denied it fired dozens of workers in retaliation for joining a union organizing effort at its plant in South Buffalo. Rather, the dismissals were based on poor job performance reviews, and the timing of the firings was coincidental, the company said in a statement Thursday. But several employees and a former manager challenged Tesla’s representation of the dismissals in interviews with Investigative Post. They noted that the number of employees fired for poor performance — more than 40 — is an unusually large number. They also noted that most of the firings were in Tesla’s Autopilot portion of[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Feb 16

2023

Tesla a target of unionizing effort

The union behind the successful effort to organize Starbucks, both here and nationally, is trying to do likewise at Tesla’s plant in South Buffalo. But, much like with Starbucks, organizers are squaring off with an employer with a history of aggressively fending off unionizing efforts. To wit, just one day after Tesla Workers United announced its organizing drive, Tesla fired 30 employees at its Buffalo plant, including some members of the union organizing team. They were dismissed via email Wednesday evening. “I strongly feel this is in retaliation to the committee announcement and it’s shameful,” Arian Berek, a fired worker[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Articles for J. Dale Shoemaker

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