You may be ready to switch from pumpkin to peppermint, but the labor movement seems to still be on cherry popsicle, because as far as unions are concerned, Hot Strike Summer isn’t over yet.

At GM…The vote by union members on whether to accept the tentative contract that led the UAW to end its six-week strike against the automaker was too close to call yesterday. Though the contract looks poised to ultimately be approved this week as tallies continue to be counted, the vote was tenser and tighter than anticipated, with several plants voting against it. The deal, which included a 25% pay bump, was hailed as a win for the union (alongside similar but separate contracts with Ford and Stellantis) and prompted non-unionized carmakers Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai to hike wages to keep up. But some union veterans felt they weren’t getting as much as newer workers, while others were disappointed the UAW didn’t get even bigger concessions, according to CNBC. If it doesn’t squeak through, union leaders will have to decide whether to restart the strike, reopen negotiations, or both.

At Starbucks…Starbucks Workers United plans to mount its largest strike ever today. The choice of date wasn’t random: It’s Red Cup Day, when Starbucks gives out reusable holiday-themed cups…and does blockbuster drink sales. But it may not make a huge impact—last year, Starbucks reportedly had its best single sales day ever on Red Cup Day despite a walkout. More than 360 of Starbucks’s 9,000 corporate outposts have unionized, but none has secured a contract.

At pharmacies…Staff from Walgreens and CVS staged a walkout earlier this month, and its organizers want to aid a national unionization campaign with IAM Healthcare, a union that represents thousands of healthcare workers.

Even “woke” employers are feeling the heat: The 48-person field staff of the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, voted unanimously this week to authorize a strike in hopes of securing higher pay. And workers at REI, which has eight unionized stores, claim the company has dragged its feet in negotiations and that managers’ anti-union statements have included saying unionization throws off the co-op’s “vibes.”—AR

HR pros know the benefits of a diverse talent pool (inclusivity and increased revenue, to name a few). So why do job seekers with military experience remain an underutilized group in today’s workforce?

In honor of National Veteran and Military Families Month, Indeed teamed up with Hiring Our Heroes to conduct a survey of over 5k US veterans and service members to shed light on the specific difficulties they face when job searching.

Data shows that although employers want to hire veterans, their job postings don’t reflect this priority, and onboarding resources are sparse.

Snag helpful employer strategies for improving the hiring and retention of military talent by reading the article’s full findings.

Biden and Xi got their face time in. President Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping had their first face-to-face meeting in a year yesterday at the APEC summit in San Francisco, with both world leaders hoping to dial down the tension between their countries. In their public remarks, both stressed cooperation, with Biden saying, “We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict,” and Xi asserting that “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.” The pair also met privately and reached agreements on curbing illicit fentanyl and reestablishing military communications.

Possible deal for Hamas to release ~50 hostages on the table. Israel is weighing a deal that Hamas has agreed to in principle for the group to release at least 50 women and children among the 240 hostages being held in Gaza, the Washington Post reported yesterday. According to the Post, the deal calls for a three-to-five-day ceasefire, more humanitarian aid, and the release of some women and children from Israeli prisons. Axios reports that much of the negotiations, which are being mediated by Qatar, have centered on how long a ceasefire Israel will agree to. If the deal moves forward, it would be the biggest release of hostages since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and the war began.

Americans are still spending money. Retail sales in the US slipped last month for the first time in seven months, dipping 0.1%, according to new government data. But that was less than anticipated…and a lot of it can probably be chalked up to people spending less on gas. If you take out auto and gasoline spending, sales actually went up 0.1% from the month before, showing that although some may be pulling back on big purchases, people are still shopping as the holiday quarter begins.

In true Wile E. Coyote fashion, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is trying to get itself out of a great caper of its own making.

WBD has reversed its controversial plan to shelve Coyote vs. Acme, a movie about the Looney Tune joining forces with a lawyer to fight the Acme Corporation. The studio is now allowing director Dave Green to shop for a different distributor, with Amazon Prime, AppleTV+, and Netflix reportedly in the running to bring it to screens.

The backstory: After three years of filming and positive audience tests, WBD announced last week that it would keep Coyote in the vault to get a $30 million tax write-off, echoing its 2022 decision to cancel Batgirl, and even more egregious, Scoob! Holiday Haunt, for tax breaks that make the company’s earnings look better in the short term.

Why did WBD reverse course? The announcement that it killed Coyote went over as well as telling your grandma that you already ate: Many filmmakers canceled meetings with WBD—and one director even called the studio “anti-art.” Meanwhile, US Rep. Joaquin Castro tweeted that WBD’s actions were “predatory and anti-competitive.”

But…WBD CEO David Zaslav’s decisions favoring tax strategies over creators could still deter filmmakers from working with the studio.—CC

There may be a future where your stubborn friend can finally send a non-garbled video. The tech startup Nothing announced it’s releasing its “Nothing Chats” feature on Friday, allowing Android users to shed the stigma of their green bubbles and send and receive blue iMessages just like their iPhone-using pals.

Despite pleas from blue and green bubblers alike, Apple only permits iPhones to officially run iMessage. Nothing’s app would give Android owners most of iMessage’s perks—like better-quality media, seeing when people are typing, and sending voice memos—without needing an iPhone.

There are some hiccups. Users won’t be able to “heart,” “thumbs down,” or react to messages at launch. Group chats only work if everyone else in the chat has iMessage, and sometimes messages just don’t send. Privacy is also a huge concern:

• The app works by routing your messages through a server farm of mini Macs and requires you to give Nothing (a company with no affiliation to Apple) your iCloud login.
• Nothing claims all messages are encrypted, but critics still say the setup is a red flag.

It might be a minute before it’s mainstream. Nothing said only owners of its newest phone will be able to download the app right now, which means at least 100,000 users will have access. Other similar services like Beeper also have extremely long waitlists. And there’s no guarantee that Apple will be chill with any of this.—MM

Stat: It was a sweeping victory for the pūteketeke—a species described by its biggest booster as “weird puking birds with colorful mullets”—which was crowned New Zealand’s Bird of the Century yesterday. The water bird got more than 290,000 votes, more than 22 times the second-place finisher, the nation’s iconic kiwi bird, in a contest run by a local conservation organization after comedian John Oliver threw his weight behind the pūteketeke on television and with billboards touting it in NZ and abroad. Oliver defended his controversial participation, saying, “This is what democracy is all about—America interfering in foreign elections.”

Quote: “I’ve been on the East Coast and on the West Coast in many of those stores that you’ve talked about where items have been locked up, and actually what we hear from the guests is a big thank you, because we are in stock with the brands that they need when they’re shopping in our stores.”

Target CEO Brian Cornell says shoppers are grateful the chain is keeping the toothpaste they want behind more glass than the Mona Lisa, since it keeps items from getting boosted by thieves who leave shelves bare. The executive’s comments on shoppers' gratitude for the high security around their deodorant came as the retailer released its third-quarter earnings report showing that while sales dipped, profits surged by 36%, thanks largely to tight inventory management and tamping down expenses.

Read: Three hackers who took down Netflix, Slack, and more, then went to work for the FBI, tell their story. (Wired)

Fly: Just in time for the holiday rush, here’s a ranking of US airports.

Accept no imitations: The 25 best and the 25 worst cover songs of all time.

Look: The photos National Geographic editors picked from a pool of 2 million as the images of the year.

Watch: The recent discovery that’s made a 28-by-22-mile-wide area in Nevada and Oregon the most valuable plot of land in the US.

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