A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021
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BRIEFING
Union appeals
Amazon election
Accusing Amazon.com
Inc. of misconduct, the re-
tail union that lost a hotly
contested election at
the company’s Alabama
warehouse has asked fed-
eral officials to set aside
the results.
In a complaint filed late
Friday with the National
Labor Relations Board,
the Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union
alleged that Amazon “pre-
vented a free and unco-
erced exercise of choice
by the employees,” includ-
ing threatening employ-
ees and retaliating against
union supporters.
“Rather than accept-
ing these employees’
choice, the union seems
determined to continue
misrepresenting the facts
in order to drive its own
agenda,” an Amazon
spokesperson said in an
email.
A successful appeal by
the union would likely
lead to a new election.
Failing that, the RWDSU
would have to wait at
least 12 months and also
sign up enough employ-
ees to again demonstrate
substantial support for
the proposed bargain-
ing unit.
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OREGON
Senate OKs bill to ease pharmacy access
East Oregonian
SALEM — Oregon would join all
states west of Texas that allow phar-
macists to fill prescriptions and pro-
vide services via telephone and elec-
tronic devices under a bill approved
by the Senate on a 29-1 vote Mon-
day . It now goes to the House.
SB 629, sponsored by Sen. Bill
Hansell, R-Athena, would build on
lessons he said have been learned
out of the pandemic.
“The pandemic has made us re-
alize that many services we depend
on can be provided online or over
the phone,” he said in a statement
after the vote.
“We can leverage these tools to
expand access to health care for
rural, elderly, and disabled Orego-
nians. This is a chance for Oregon
to evolve in our delivery of health
care.”
Hansell said many rural towns
do not have a pharmacist, requir-
ing long distances for patients to
get prescriptions filled. Most states
in the West, with long distances be-
tween medical facilities, already al-
low for wider use of telephones and
computers to relay information to
fill prescriptions. Oregon still lim-
its the authority of pharmacists to
communicate electronically with
pharmacy technicians and custom-
ers in order to fill orders.
Casino project is among
largest on the Vegas Strip
Resorts World Las Vegas
sets opening date for June
Developer of PDFs,
Adobe founder dies
Charles “Chuck”
Geschke — the co-
founder of the major
software company Adobe
Inc. who helped develop
Portable Document For-
mat technology, or PDFs
— died at age 81.
Geschke, who lived
in the San Francisco Bay
Area suburb of Los Altos,
died Friday, the company
said.
“As co-founders of
Adobe, Chuck and John
Warnock
developed
ground-
breaking
software
that has
revolu-
Geschke
tionized
how people create and
communicate,” Adobe CEO
Shantanu Narayen wrote
in an email to the com-
pany’s employees. “Their
first product was Adobe
PostScript, an innovative
technology that provided
a radical new way to print
text and images on paper
and sparked the desktop
publishing revolution.
Chuck instilled a relent-
less drive for innovation
in the company, result-
ing in some of the most
transformative software
inventions, including the
ubiquitous PDF, Acrobat,
Illustrator, Premiere Pro
and Photoshop.”
Coca-Cola sees
signs for recovery
Increased vaccinations
are helping Coca-Cola
Co. recapture some of
its global drink business,
with the company report-
ing Monday that volume
of drinks sold reached
pre-pandemic levels in
March. The Atlanta-based
company reported bet-
ter financial results than
some analysts had ex-
pected.
The COVID-19 pan-
demic left Coke with its
steepest annual decline
in the volume of drinks
sold since the 1940s.
CEO James Quincey
predicted a relatively
quick succession of re-
covery phases in the U.S.,
where restaurants and
bars started to rebound
in March. Still, he said, the
company’s U.S. fountain
business — as opposed
to drinks in bottles and
cans — was still down.
— Bulletin wire reports
Ken Ritter/AP
O
ne of the biggest casino proj-
ects ever on the Las Vegas
Strip has set a date to open,
after more than seven years of plan-
ning and building.
Resorts World Las Vegas an-
nounced Monday it will open to
the public June 24 and began taking
reservations for more than 3,500
rooms at its three Hilton-branded
hotels.
The first ground-up resort built
on the Strip in more than a de-
cade will open during a pandemic
that has upended the Las Vegas
economy with business restric-
tions intended to slow the spread
of COVID-19. Nevada Gov. Steve
Sisolak has set a June 1 goal for
100% reopening of businesses shut-
tered in March 2020.
The resort is on the site of the for-
mer Stardust, an iconic Las Vegas
landmark that was the largest hotel
in the world when it opened in 1958
with 1,500 rooms. It closed in 2006
and was owned by Boyd Gaming
Corp. when its 32-story tower was
imploded in March 2007.
Malaysia-based Genting Group,
an operator of resorts and casinos
around the world, bought the site in
2013 from Boyd Gaming for $350
million.
The $4.3 billion project has been
BY KEN RITTER • Associated Press
under construction since May 2015.
Scott Sibella, president of Resorts
World Las Vegas, acknowledged
the years of work included delays
and redesigns to reshape the Asian
theme of the big 88-acre property.
“We are filled with gratitude and
excitement as we approach our
opening … and hope to play a role
in Las Vegas’ rebound after what
has been an incredibly challenging
year,” Sibella said in a statement. A
time for doors to open was not im-
mediately disclosed.
The property has emerged as a
curved, red, 59-story structure with
a huge dynamic LED facade facing
Las Vegas Boulevard. The owner
calls the 100,000-square-foot display
one of the largest in the U.S.
Its three hotels — dubbed Las Ve-
gas Hilton at Resorts World, Con-
rad Las Vegas at Resorts World, and
Crockfords Las Vegas, LXR Hotels
and Resorts — are designed to offer
a range of amenities.
Announcements in recent weeks
have focused on Zouk Nightclub
and AYU Dayclub headliners in-
cluding Zedd and Tiësto .
The scale of the complex is huge
among Strip resorts, with more than
40 restaurants, eateries and bever-
age outlets; multiple retail shops and
stores; a 117,000-square-foot casino;
and 250,000 square feet of meeting
and banquet space. The resort also
will include a 5.5-acre pool and spa
complex with seven swimming pools.
AEG Presents will partner with
the resort in a 5,000-capacity con-
cert and entertainment theater pro-
grammed and operated by Concerts
West. The Las Vegas Review-Jour-
nal has reported possible headliners
including Katy Perry, Celine Dion,
Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan.
Resorts World also will have a
station connected by developer Elon
Musk’s underground Tesla vehicle
transit with the renovated Las Vegas
Convention Center.
The biggest single development
on the Strip was the $9.2 billion
CityCenter partnership between
MGM Resorts International and
Dubai World. It opened in Decem-
ber 2009 and includes the Aria,
Vdara, Waldorf Astoria and Veer
hotel and condominium towers and
a retail and entertainment district.
Other large projects in recent
years include the more than $4.1
billion Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
and $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas.
The Bellagio, known for its dancing
water fountains, opened in 1998 at a
cost of about $1.6 billion.
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Glitches
stall relief
for theaters,
live music
venues
BY HAMZA SHABAN
The Washington Post
An online application portal meant to help the
nation’s music and arts venues get federal pan-
demic relief after a year-plus of dark stages and
a hard-fought lobbying campaign has yet to get
off the ground nearly two weeks after technical
problems scuttled its scheduled launch.
The delayed rollout of the $16 billion pro-
gram, which the Small Business Administration
says could be resolved later this week, is the lat-
est stumble by a government agency tasked with
delivering emergency aid during the pandemic.
The problems — including meltdowns of states’
unemployment insurance systems, stimulus pay-
ment delays and glitches in vaccine registration
websites — highlight the limits of bureaucratic
competency and underscore the daunting task of
running massive rescue programs during a pub-
lic health crisis.
The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, which
would top out at $10 million apiece, is designed
to help venues, theaters and other arts and en-
tertainment businesses cover payroll, rent, util-
ities and other operating expenses after govern-
ment restrictions on public gatherings cut off the
crowds that serve as their lifeblood.
Arden Barnett, the owner of Duling Hall, a
premier music venue in Jackson, Mississippi, has
been unable to make rent for more than a year.
He says he has lost count of how many shows
he has canceled or postponed since his last per-
formance sold out in March 2020. Like other
music venue operators — which analysts esti-
mate lost a collective $33 billion in 2020 — he
had planned to apply as soon as the SBA portal
opened April 8.
But almost immediately, the application site
crashed, forcing the SBA to pull the system of-
fline.
“The day comes for our hallelujah moment,
and our landlord’s on cloud nine thinking he is
going to get paid, and then ‘boom,’ ” Barnett said.
“It was like a bad acid trip.”
The SBA said Friday that it will share an exact
date in advance of the portal’s reopening to give
applicants time to prepare.
“I do wake up in the middle of the night be-
cause I feel bad that we have not been able to do
what our responsibility is, which is to pay rent,”
Barnett said.
Audrey Fix Schaefer, a spokeswoman for the
National Independent Venue Association, a
3,000-member organization that helped lobby
Congress for the rescue package, said her group
has been assured by the White House that re-
opening the portal was a top priority at the SBA.
“They’re working around the clock on rigorous
stress testing and other improvements on the
system.” Still, she noted, some small businesses
won’t be able to hold out much longer.
“Understandably, landlords can’t last forever.
Eviction notices are coming. People are saying,
‘we can’t do this anymore,’ ” she said.
As states move to relax their restrictions on
businesses and gatherings, concert goers and au-
diences are clamoring for a return to live events.
Demand for outdoor shows and festivals has
exploded in the U.S., matching and even sur-
passing pre-pandemic levels, according to Boris
Patronoff, chief executive of See Tickets in North
America, the ticketing services company.
“A lot of people have struggled, a lot of people
have suffered, but the people still want to go to
concerts, the consumer demand is driving that
business,” he said, stressing that venue operators
want to expand responsibly.
Barnett of Duling Hall said his schedule is
booked two to five acts deep for multiple days a
week through the summer.
Regulator flags Peloton treadmill after child death
BY JOSEPH PISANI
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Safety reg-
ulators warned people with
kids and pets Saturday to im-
mediately stop using a tread-
mill made by Peloton after one
child died and nearly 40 others
were injured.
The U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission said it re-
ceived reports of children and
a pet being pulled, pinned and
entrapped under the rear roller
of the Tread+ treadmill, lead-
ing to fractures, scrapes and
the death of one child.
The commission posted a
video on its YouTube page of
a child being pulled under the
treadmill.
New York-based Peloton
Interactive Inc. said in a news
release that the warning was
“inaccurate and misleading.”
It said there’s no reason to stop
using the treadmill as long as
children and pets are kept away
from it at all times, it is turned
off when not in use and a safety
key is removed.
But the safety commission
said that in at least one episode,
a child was pulled under the
treadmill while a parent was
running on it, suggesting it can
be dangerous to children even
while a parent is present.
If adults want to keep using
the treadmill, the commission
said, they should use it only in
a locked room so children and
pets can’t come near it. When
not in use, the treadmill should
be unplugged and the safety
key taken out and hidden away.
The commission also said to
keep exercise balls and other
objects away from it, because
those have been pulled under
the treadmill, too.
Peloton is best known for
its stationary bikes, but it in-
troduced the treadmill about
three years ago and now calls it
the Tread+. It costs more than
$4,000.
Sales of Peloton equipment
have soared during the pan-
demic as virus-weary people
avoid gyms and workout at
home instead. The company
brought in $1 billion in reve-
nue in the last three months of
2020, more than double its rev-
enue from the same period a
year before.
The commission did not
say how many of the Peloton
treadmills have been sold.