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Amazon interfered with a formal election by its warehouse workers in Alabama to unionize and staff ought to be given a second chance to vote again, an official at the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has concluded.

After pro-union employees, represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), working at the BHM1 fulfillment center in Bessemer in the Cotton State lost their unionization election in April, the union swiftly filed objections to the labor relations board.

"A free and fair election was impossible," said [PDF] Kerstin Meyers, an NLRB hearing officer, this week. "Under the circumstances, I recommend that a second election be ordered."

Stuart Appelbaum, the RWDSUs president, claimed Amazon deliberately engineered an unfair election environment that skewed the vote. For instance, Amazon had the US Postal Service install a mailbox right in front of the warehouse, and the mega-corp messaged its workers to encourage them to mail in their ballots via this box. It is said the mailbox was placed in a tent, branded with Amazon's anti-union messaging and a sign on it saying vote here in full view of Amazon's surveillance cameras. It was claimed this was a clear example of Amazon sticking its oar far too deep into the voting process.

The labor official agreed. The employers conduct in causing this generic mail receptacle to be installed usurped the NLRBs exclusive role in administering union elections, Meyers wrote.

Notwithstanding the unions substantial margin of defeat, the employers unilateral decision to create, for all intents and purposes, an onsite collection box for NLRB ballots destroyed the laboratory conditions and justifies a second election.

The e-commerce giant also not only showered workers with messages to vote no, as you might expect, it had them attend mandatory 30-minute meetings that were essentially anti-union lectures. At the end of these meetings, anti-union leaflets and pins were left for staff to pick up, with supervisors watching them as they left.

"I find that by distributing these anti-union materials in the presence of managers, the employer committed objectionable conduct," Meyers noted. "The misconduct herein occurred on numerous occasions at untold number of meetings. Virtually all of the bargaining unit employees were subjected to the misconduct, as these were mandatory employee meetings. Under the circumstances, I find that this conduct is objectionable."

It was also claimed Amazon hired off-duty cops to patrol its facilities during the election period, though it was able to demonstrate to the labor watchdog that these officers were needed due to recent on-site security incidents. Similarly, Amazon was accused of persuading the county to alter traffic light signal patterns to interfere with pro-union campaigning on street corners, though it was shown that Amazon had merely asked the county to carry out a traffic flow study of the area before union campaigning began.

In the end, 738 votes were cast for joining the RWDSU, and 1,798 votes were cast against from roughly 5,860 possible voters; 505 ballots were challenged, which wouldn't be enough to change the outcome.

That said, now that Meyers has recommended a second vote be carried out, a regional director of the labor board will decide over the summer whether to demand another election.

We support the hearing officers recommendation that the NLRB set aside the election results and direct a new election, Appelbaum said in a statement.

As President Biden reminded us earlier this year, the question of whether or not to have a union is supposed to be the workers decision and not the employers. Amazons behavior throughout the election process was despicable. Amazon cheated, they got caught, and they are being held accountable.

Amazon said it intends to appeal to block another election, adding that its workers "voted overwhelmingly in favor of a direct connection with their managers and the company."

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US labor official suggests Amazon's Alabama workers rerun that unionization vote - The Register

Salesforce-owned application integration biz Mulesoft has gobbled up Servicetrace, a robotic process automation vendor.

In a move that follows Oracle and SAP in the RPA market, the buy is intended to help Salesforce provide integration, API management, and RPA platforms, which would further "enrich" its Customer 360 tool, according to Brent Hayward, Mulesoft CEO.

"The new RPA capabilities will enhance Salesforce's Einstein Automate solution, enabling end-to-end workflow automation across any system for Service, Sales, Industries, and more," he said.

But Salesforce is not the first application giant to see the logic in buying or developing RPA technology to sit alongside their own business platforms.

In 2018, SAP bought French RPA vendor Contextor and followed up last year with the launch of SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 2.0, which "targets developers looking to automate repetitive, manual tasks with software bots."

Similarly, Oracle is also looking to take a chunk out of the RPA market, dominated by vendors including Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, and UiPath, which could be worth $75bn by 2025.

But just to be different, Big Red is calling its effort Intelligent Process Automation. Last year Juergen Lindner, Oracle senior veep of ERP, said it would "leapfrog the RPA approaches" by using machine learning to "auto suggest which tasks can be automated."

Not to be left out, Microsoft has bought Softomotive and last year launched its Power Automate Desktop product.

But Mulesoft sees RPA as part of the process of application integration rather than simply automating desktop tasks.

With a partial regurgitation of the jargon dictionary, CEO Hayward said: "We're continuing to build on our vision of enabling the composable business, making it possible for companies to turn every asset in their organization data, automations, and applications into reusable building blocks to create seamless digital experiences, faster."

Lovely stuff.

This being the IT industry, everyone is trying to eat each other's lunch. RPA and low-code vendor Pega is also having a stab at integration, with its "context-aware" APIs that "dynamically update" as processes change.

Read the original here:
Salesforce follows application rivals into the RPA market with Servicetrace purchase - The Register

Facebook, which has repeatedly touted its transparency efforts, on Tuesday disabled the accounts of independent ad transparency researchers.

The targeted ad biz said it did so in the name of privacy, a source of persistent scandal for the corporation. Facebook said it disabled the accounts, apps, Pages, and platform access for NYUs Ad Observatory Project and participating researchers because their work violated its rules.

"NYUs Ad Observatory project studied political ads using unauthorized means to access and collect data from Facebook, in violation of our Terms of Service," said Mike Clark, product management director at Facebook, in a blog post.

Clark said Facebook did so to comply with the terms of its FTC Order, which followed from the company's 2019 settlement with the US trade watchdog to resolve privacy complaints. And he said Facebook told the researchers their tool would violate the social network's terms a year ago, before it launched.

The NYU Ad Observatory created a browser extension called Ad Observer that scrapes data from Facebook in a way that avoids the tech giant's detection systems, said Clark, claiming some of that data was not publicly viewable on the site.

"Todays action doesnt change our commitment to providing more transparency around ads on Facebook or our ongoing collaborations with academia," Clark insisted.

The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a phone interview with The Register, Ashkan Soltani, a privacy researcher and former Federal Trade Commission technologist, dismissed Facebook's justification and the idea that the consent decree requires such drastic action.

"It's selective enforcement," he said, noting that Facebook often permits other analytics tools on their websites. "Yet again Facebook is trying to use privacy to fulfill a policy goal of reducing transparency around ad serving."

The reason Facebook would do so, he said, is that the company has faced a lot of criticism around how it targets ads, and not just political ads, which the NYU researchers are studying.

FB's stance, he said, is particularly ironic given its failure to defend against the scraping of actual consumer data that produced the massive spillage of personal info from 533m Facebook accounts in April.

The Ad Observer extension, he said, isn't collecting personal information about Facebook users. It's collecting information about ads that are meant to be shown publicly.

Mozilla said as much back in October last year when Facebook initially threatened to block Ad Observer. "Facebook claims its motive for threatening Ad Observer is that browser plugins and extensions, like Ad Observer, could violate Facebook users privacy," Moz said in an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"But Ad Observer only collects information about the ads people see, not personal posts or users personal information. What is true is that the Ad Observatory project has revealed serious flaws in Facebooks advertising transparency policies."

According to the NYU Ad Observatory, the Ad Observer extension collects: the advertiser's name and disclosure string; the ad's text, image, and link; the information Facebook provides about how the ad was targeted; when the ad was shown to you; and your browser language. The project claims it does not collect any identifying or personal information.

"[Ad Observer] essentially pulls back the veil on their underlying algorithms," said Soltani, adding that regulators have a legitimate interest in such information. "The HUD investigation was made possible through this type of analysis."

In 2018, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development sued Facebook for discriminatory advertising [PDF]. Facebook settled the charges a year later, agreeing to make changes to its ad system.

Researchers involved in the project an attempt to expose social media threats to democracy promptly denounced the move.

Laura Edelson, a doctoral candidate at NYU said, "Over the last several years, weve used this access to uncover systemic flaws in the Facebook Ad Library, identify misinformation in political ads including many sowing distrust in our election system, and to study Facebooks apparent amplification of partisan misinformation."

"By suspending our accounts, Facebook has effectively ended all this work. Facebook has also effectively cut off access to more than two dozen other researchers and journalists who get access to Facebook data through our project."

Other academics involved in the project expressed similar dissatisfaction.

It is disgraceful that Facebook is attempting to squash legitimate research that is informing the public about disinformation on their platform

"It is disgraceful that Facebook is attempting to squash legitimate research that is informing the public about disinformation on their platform," said Damon McCoy, associate professor of computer science and engineering at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, in a statement.

"With its platform awash in vaccine disinformation and partisan campaigns to manipulate the public, Facebook should be welcoming independent research, not shutting it down. Allowing Facebook to dictate who can investigate what is occurring on its platform is not in the public interest."

So too did politicians, like US Senator Mark Warner (D-VA).

"This latest action by Facebook to cut off an outside groups transparency efforts efforts that have repeatedly facilitated revelations of ads violating Facebooks Terms of Service, ads for frauds and predatory financial schemes, and political ads that were improperly omitted from Facebooks lackluster Ad Library is deeply concerning," said Warner in a statement, urging legislative action to deal with "shadowy world of online advertising."

Despite years of calling on social media platforms to work with independent researchers to improve platform integrity, he said, Facebook appears to have done the opposite.

The political pique rippled across the pond, prompting UK MP Damian Collins to state, "Facebook is closing down legitimate academic research into targeted advertising on its platform. This shows once again that they are more concerned about protecting their interests than allowing independent scrutiny of how their ad tools are used & abused."

More:
Facebook takes bold stance on privacy of its ads: Independent transparency research blocked - The Register

Investors in high-tech industries often seek out stocks that will expose their portfolios to fast-growing markets like robotics, semiconductors, 5G, and space exploration. One company helping power all of these industries is Ansys (NASDAQ:ANSS), a maker of simulation software. Ansys is the largest engineering simulation company in the world, and it has delivered returns of almost 12,000% for shareholders since its IPO back in 1996.

Let's investigate why this company is so special, and consider whether you should add it to your portfolio today.

Founded more than 50 years ago, Ansys provides software simulation tools for engineering departments, both academic and commercial. Its offerings include tools for simulating designs in an array of engineering niches, from mechanical to fluid and electrical. Its clientele comes from the automotive, semiconductor, space, and robotics sectors, among many others. Its software is even used by top Formula One team Red Bull to simulate and improve the performance of its racing cars.

Image source: Getty Images.

Research and development departments around the globe license Ansys software to test their designs before building products in the real world, which saves them time and money. And Ansys reinvests almost 20% of its revenue each year back into its own R&D projects, further increasing the value of its software to its customers.

After decades of improvements, Ansys's tools are light years ahead of the competition. That's one reason it's able to charge a pretty penny to access its products -- customer sources say the price of a single license can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to $50,000 (depending on the product). The combination of its pricing power and its expanding end markets has allowed Ansys to steadily grow its financials over the years.

Ansys has steadily compounded its revenue over the last few decades. In the first quarter, its top line hit $362.2 million, up 19% year over year. Revenue has grown consistently since its IPO, from less than $50 million in 1996 to the $1.74 billion it logged over the past 12 months. Ansys is also highly profitable and has been for a long time with $538 million in trailing-12-month free cash flow.

Data by YCharts.

This steady growth is due in part to the company's reliable customer base. R&D departments put in thousands -- sometimes tens of thousands -- of hours working on complex engineering problems using its software, and it would be costly and time-consuming to switch to a competing tool. Given the high switching costs, many of its customers sign long-term contracts, giving Ansys a large backlog of deferred revenue. At the end of the first quarter, this number sat at $936.5 million.

Given Ansys is a leader within its niche and has been for some time, it's no surprise its shares are trading at a pricey valuation. With a market cap of about $30 billion, its price-to-sales ratio (P/S) is 17.3, and its price-to-free-cash-flow (P/FCF) ratio is 55.8. Both of those figures are well above average, even among its software and technology peers.

Ansys boasts a high free-cash- flow margin of 31%, which it will likely have trouble expanding, especially if management remains committed to spending approximately 20% of revenue on R&D each year. This isn't necessarily bad for the company (it's actually quite impressive Ansys can have such strong free-cash-flow margin while simultaneously spending so much on R&D), but it shows the limits to growing free cash flow through increasing profit margins alone.

Its technological advantages and high switching costs give Ansys a wide moat. This combination has helped it consistently produce market-beating returns over the years, and it should keep profit margins durable. But because the stock is trading at such a premium valuation, it is staying on my watch list for now. There's no reason to sell shares you already own, but for the time being, there are better opportunities out there for investors.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

More:
Does This Top Simulation Stock Belong in Your Portfolio? - The Motley Fool

Apple today released tvOS 14.7, the seventh update to the tvOS 14 operating system that initially debuted in September 2020. tvOS 14.7 comes two months after the launch of the tvOS 14.6 update.

tvOS 14.7, which is a free update, can be downloaded over the air through the Settings app on the Apple TV by going to System > Software Update. Apple TV owners who have automatic software updates enabled will be upgraded to tvOS 14.7 automatically.

Apple's tvOS updates are usually minor in scale, focusing on under-the-hood bug fixes, performance updates, and small tweaks rather than major outward-facing changes. No new features were discovered during the tvOS 14.7 beta testing process.

Apple does not provide detailed release notes for its tvOS updates, but it does offer some tvOS details through its tvOS support document.

tvOS 14.7 may be one of the final updates to the tvOS 14 operating system as Apple shifts its attention to tvOS 15, which is set to come out this fall.

Originally posted here:
Apple Releases tvOS 14.7 for Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K - MacRumors