Amazon workers set union vote

NEW YORK – The battle to unionize Amazon workers is intensifying after labor officials officially set a date for a union election in a New York City facility next month.

The election, which will be held in person, is slated for between March 25-30, confirmed the National Labor Relations Board Thursday.

The ballot count will be conducted on March 31. An independent and fledgling group called the Amazon Labor Union is spearheading the push.

Meanwhile, Amazon workers in a Bessemer, Alabama, facility are voting by mail for the second time on whether to form a union.The voting started Feb. 4, and ballots must be returned to the NLRB regional office by March 25. Vote counting starts on March 28.

Fed official urges caution with hike

NEW YORK – The Federal Reserve should start raising interest rates next month to help rein in too-high inflation, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said Friday.

But he added that the rate hikes may not have to begin with as big a bang as some have suggested.

With inflation at its hottest level in two generations, the Fed is widely expected to seek to cool the economy by raising its benchmark short-term interest rate from its record low of nearly zero, where it’s been throughout the pandemic.

The only question has been how big and how quickly it will move, because an overly aggressive approach could choke the economy while too much caution could let inflation spiral further.

From wire reports