Opinion: Corporate Volunteer Programs Could Use Some Work

Volkswagen workers in Germany have gone on strike today in the largest industrial action taken against the company since 2018. The union IG Metall, which represents about 120,000 VW workers, voted to approve the strike on November 22, describing the situation as "the toughest collective bargaining battle Volkswagen has ever seen." IG Metall's members are striking in response to VW's plans to cut its European manufacturing costs, which are dragging on the company at the same time as the Chinese market has become more difficult due to domestic competition, as well as a softening of global demand for electric vehicles. VW's response to these tough times has been to propose a 10 percent pay cut, thousands of layoffs, and the closure of three German factories—the first time such a thing will have happened in the company's 87-year history.

Sony Picture's Kraven the Hunter explores origins of titular villain. Hollywood is coming off a record-breaking Thanksgiving weekend, thanks to the winning trifecta of Moana 2, Gladiator II, and Wicked Part 1. Can other upcoming releases ride that wave? Perhaps that's why Sony Pictures just released the first eight minutes of its much-delayed Kraven the Hunter.

SpaceX recently hit some notable milestones with its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, and even in the full context of history, the performance of the vehicle is pretty incredible. Last Tuesday, the company launched a batch of Starlink v2-mini satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket, marking the 400th successful mission by the Falcon 9 rocket.

In a surprise move, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has stepped down as head of the company after less than four years, as reported by Reuters and other outlets. The change caps a chaotic year for Intel, which is poised to report its first annual financial loss since 1986 and announced layoffs of at least 15,000 employees this year as it attempted to cut costs. Intel CFO David Zinsner and Client Computing Group head Michelle Johnston Holthaus will be sharing the title of interim CEO while the company's board of directors searches for a new CEO.

Consumers in the United States are scouring the internet for online deals as they look to take advantage of the post-Thanksgiving shopping marathon with Cyber Monday. Even though e-commerce is now part and parcel of many people’s regular routines and the holiday shopping season, Cyber Monday — a term coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation — has become the biggest online shopping day of the year, thanks to the deals and the hype the industry has created to fuel it. Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping, expects consumers to spend a record $13.2 billion on Monday, 6.1% more than last year.

I hope everyone survived the weekend shopping experience and no one was eaten by ravening bands of deal-hunting nomads as they trekked through Macy's, or whatever people who actually go outside on Black Friday have to endure. Things are mostly quiet here at the Ars Orbiting HQ—the gift shop on the mess deck is still selling mugs and other merch, if anyone wants some Ars stuff!—but the e-commerce communications panel is beeping and it says we've got more deals to show you guys for Cyber Monday! Cyber Monday is the thing that happens after Black Friday, where the deals keep going past the weekend and erupt into the next week, like some kind of out-of-control roller coaster of capitalism careening off the rails and into the crowd.