Technologies

Amazon workers plan Black Friday strike

One of the largest retailers might be short on workers on the biggest shopping day.

Amazon might have a rough Black Friday. Workers for the online retail giant want better pay and improvements to the workplace, and for the company to be more proactive on issues such as the climate crisis, or else they’ll strike on the biggest shopping day of the year.

Make Amazon Pay is a coalition of workers and labor organizations calling for a labor strike by Amazon employees across the company’s operations, such as data centers, factories and warehouses. They plan to organize the work stoppage for Black Friday in 20 countries including India, Germany and the United States.

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«The pandemic has exposed how Amazon places profits ahead of workers, society, and our planet,» the coalition said in its demands document. «Amazon takes too much and gives back too little. It is time to Make Amazon Pay.»

The group’s demands are split into five categories: workplace improvements, job security, respect for workers’ rights, sustainable operations and paying back society. Workplace improvements include improving pay, adding hazard pay, providing adequate break time, extending paid sick leave and disclosing COVID-19 protocols.

For job security, the group wants the end of forms of casual employment and contractors while reinstating employees fired for organizing protests. Respecting workers’ rights focuses primarily on allowing employees to form a union and for Amazon to not conduct union-busting tactics. The group also calls for the retail giant to acknowledge climate change, to reduce emissions to zero and to pay its taxes.

Amazon says it’s already made headway on these demands.

«These groups represent a variety of interests, and while we are not perfect in any area, if you objectively look at what Amazon is doing in each one of these areas you’ll see that we do take our role and our impact very seriously,» Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement Wednesday.

Last year, there was a similar call for a workers’ strike on Black Friday after Amazon’s sales rose sharply during the COVID pandemic.

In April, Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted against forming a union at that facility.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 29, #1022

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle No. 1,022 for Sunday, March 29.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a fun one. You might recognize the four green group words right away. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: You might spot these while driving around.

Green group hint: Everyone boogie!

Blue group hint: Certain silent letter.

Purple group hint: Zuckerberg is one.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Images seen on the street.

Green group: Retro dance crazes.

Blue group: Silent «P.»

Purple group: ____ mark.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is images seen on the street. The four answers are graffiti, mural, poster and stencil.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is retro dance crazes. The four answers are hustle, mashed potato, robot and twist.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is silent «p.» The four answers are corps, coup, psycho and receipt.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ mark. The four answers are beauty, check, question and stretch.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 29 #756

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 756 for Saturday, March 29.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is fairly difficult. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: A bit peckish?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Feathered friends’ food.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

FORT, FORTS, SEEN, STORE, BATE, RATE, FILE, LIFE, LIFER, TIES, FORTH, SILL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight, but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: