factories

The US Labor Department said Thursday it cited Smithfield Foods for failing to protect employees from the coronavirus, making it the first major US meatpacker to face a fine after outbreaks at slaughterhouses infected thousands of workers this spring and caused meat shortages. The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Smithfield Packaged Meats in …

Boeing is seeking to increase black US employees throughout the company by 20 percent and mandate benchmarks for hiring people of color, Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told employees in a memo on Friday reviewed by Reuters. US corporations have become more responsive to complaints related to racial equality following a summer of sweeping anti-racism protests …

Colombian seamstress Nazly Penagos got an unusual offer from her boss: Come live inside the Bogota factory to reduce the chance of getting sick with the novel coronavirus. The owner of the Hechizoo factory, which normally employs 70 to produce high-end upholstery, has installed bathrooms, a kitchen and beds to house eight of the 17 …

California officials say they’ve reached a truce with Tesla over the company’s efforts to restart its Bay Area factory in spite of the coronavirus crisis. Alameda County’s Public Health Department agreed that Tesla can ramp up operations at its Fremont car plant this week and fully reopen as soon as Monday if it takes sufficient …

New orders for US-made goods suffered a record decline in March and could sink further as disruptions from the novel coronavirus fracture supply chains and depress exports. The report from the Commerce Department on Monday was the latest in a series of increasingly bleak economic data. It also bolstered analysts’ views that the economy would …

Tesla has asked some employees at its California factory to return to work before the end of a lockdown order that shut down the plant last month, according to reports. Elon Musk’s electric-car maker told some paint and stamping operations workers to report to the Fremont, California factory on Wednesday — four days before the …

US manufacturing output dropped by the most in just over 74 years in March as the novel coronavirus pandemic fractured supply chains, suggesting business investment contracted further in the first quarter. The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday manufacturing production plummeted 6.3 percent last month, the biggest decrease since February 1946. Data for February was revised …

Tesla plans to furlough non-essential workers and cut employees’ salaries now that the coronavirus crisis has halted production at some of its factories. The electric-car maker will furlough staff who cannot work from home and are not performing crucial work at its plants, a company official told US employees Tuesday. Tesla expects to restart normal …

US manufacturing activity contracted less than expected in March, but disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic pushed new orders received by factories to an 11-year low, reinforcing economists’ views that the economy was in recession. The Institute for Supply Management said on Wednesday its index of national factory activity fell to a reading of 49.1 …