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Oilfield services provider Basic Energy Services is warning employees that nearly 500 jobs could be eliminated in Texas, according to a filing with the state's workforce commission, as the company works through chapter 11 restructuring that includes asset sales, Reuters reported. The job cuts are focused throughout Texas, with 135 positions eliminated in Howard County in West Texas and 120 in Tarrant County, where its headquarters are located, according to the filing. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company this month filed for bankruptcy and said it had entered into asset purchase agreements with rivals Axis Energy Services Holding Inc., Berry Corp. and Select Energy Services Inc. If those asset sales are not completed, or if the acquiring company does not offer current Basic employees jobs following the close of the sales, the positions will be eliminated, Basic said in the filing. In a statement earlier this month, CEO Keith Schilling noted that the company faced "extraordinary challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic." He added, in the earlier statement: “We believe the asset purchase agreements will enable us to maximize the value of our businesses and create the best path forward for our customers, partners, employees and the communities we serve.”

U.S. groups representing transit systems and city leaders yesterday joined unions and environmental groups in calling on Congress to back at least $10 billion in additional public transit spending along with new funding for high-speed rail, Reuters reported. The American Public Transportation Association, U.S. Conference of Mayors, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Sierra Club, and more than 40 other groups called for the funding in a proposed $3.5 trillion spending bill Congress plans to take up next month. Last month, the U.S. Senate passed a $1 trillion infrastructure package that included $39 billion for public transit. A bipartisan Senate White House framework deal had included $49 billion for transit. Transit ridership has been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since early 2020, Congress has approved $69.5 billion in emergency assistance, including $30.5 billion in March. U.S. passenger railroad Amtrak, which received about $2 billion from Congress in the year before the coronavirus pandemic, has been awarded $3.7 billion in emergency funding since March 2020. Nationally, transit ridership remains about 55% of pre-pandemic levels as many people continue to work at home and some riders are opting to use other modes of transportation.

Manufacturers are stacking up unfinished goods on factory floors and parking incomplete vehicles in airport parking lots while waiting for missing parts, made scarce by supply-chain problems, the Wall Street Journal reported. Shortages of mechanical parts, commodity materials and electronic components containing semiconductor chips have been disrupting manufacturing across multiple industries for months. Companies determined to keep factories open are trying to work around shortages by producing what they can, at the same time rising customer demand has cleaned out store shelves, dealer showrooms and distribution centers. As a result, manufacturers are amassing big inventories of unsold or incomplete products such as truck wheels and farm tractors. Companies that are used to filling orders quickly now have bulging backlogs of orders, waiting for scarce parts or green lights from customers willing to take deliveries. Executives expect the shortages and delivery bottlenecks, exacerbated by overwhelmed transportation networks and a lack of workers, to stretch into the fall. The delays are costing manufacturers sales and pushing some companies to revamp the way they put together their products, executives said.

Nabisco workers in five states are on strike over changes to work schedules and overtime being sought by the maker of Oreos, Ritz Crackers, Chips Ahoy! and other popular snack foods, the Washington Post reported. The walkout began on Aug. 10 at a biscuit bakery in Portland, Ore., and has since swelled to about 1,000 workers in Aurora, Colo., Richmond, Chicago and, as of Monday, a distribution center in Norcross, Ga. They are represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), which earlier this summer was involved in a 19-day strike at a Frito-Lay plant in Kansas. Nabisco’s Chicago-based parent, Mondelez International, continues to produce snacks with nonunion staff even though three of its four U.S. bakeries have been affected by the strike. Unionized workers in all five states are governed by a single contract that expired in May.

House Democrats yesterday approved a roughly $3.5 trillion budget that could enable sweeping changes to the nation’s health-care, education and tax laws, overcoming their own internal divisions to take the next step toward enacting President Biden’s broader economic agenda, the Washington Post reported. The 220-to-212 party-line vote came after days of delays as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) scrambled to stave off a revolt from her party’s moderate-leaning lawmakers. The outcome immediately set in motion a laborious effort on Capitol Hill to transform the $3.5 trillion blueprint into a fuller legislative product. Much like the proposal the Senate adopted this month, the House budget is essentially an outline that does not require Biden’s signature. Rather, it is a congressional document that unlocks for Democrats a longer legislative process known as reconciliation — a tactic that allows them to write a tax-and-spending bill that can bypass a Republican filibuster. As part of the forthcoming package, Democrats have pledged to expand Medicare, invest sizable sums in education and family-focused programs, and devote new funds toward combating climate change — fulfilling many of the party’s 2020 campaign pledges. And they have aimed to finance the tranche of new spending through tax hikes targeting wealthy corporations, families and investors, rolling back tax cuts imposed under President Donald Trump. Also, Democrats committed that the House would consider the separate infrastructure package by Sept. 27.

A California law that ensures many gig workers are considered independent contractors, while affording them some limited benefits, is unconstitutional and unenforceable, a California Superior Court judge ruled on Friday, the New York Times reported. The decision is not likely to immediately affect the new law and is certain to face appeals from Uber and other so-called gig economy companies. It reopened the debate about whether drivers for ride-hailing services and delivery couriers are employees who deserve full benefits, or independent contractors who are responsible for their own businesses and benefits. Last year’s Proposition 22, a ballot initiative backed by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig economy platforms, carved out a third classification for workers, granting gig workers limited benefits while preventing them from being considered employees of the tech giants. The initiative was approved in November with more than 58 percent of the vote. But drivers and the Service Employees International Union filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law. The group argued that Prop. 22 was unconstitutional because it limited the State Legislature’s ability to allow workers to organize and have access to workers’ compensation.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill approved by the Senate this month is the latest effort to inject federal money into public transit agencies. But all that money likely won’t buy what transit really needs: more riders, the Wall Street Journal reported. Unless ridership recovers from its pandemic-induced drop, agencies will again confront large budget deficits once the federal money runs out in three or four years, analysts say. That could mean service cuts and fare increases, according to transit agencies. “As soon as the money stops flowing, transit agencies are going to be in the same position as they were before,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, a transportation policy expert at the libertarian-leaning Reason Foundation. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for instance, expects to use up its $14.5 billion allocation of federal aid by 2024, at which point it will face a $3.5 billion two-year shortfall. Transit ridership nationwide fell by 78% between February and April 2020 as the rise in COVID-19 cases prompted people to stay home. Agencies pared back their services but still lost crucial revenue. Fares account for about a third of operating costs, according to the Transportation Department. In response, Congress passed three COVID-19 relief bills signed by both former President Trump and President Biden totaling $69.5 billion to help transit agencies. That is $15 billion more than the country’s 2,200 agencies spent combined to run their systems in 2019, the last year before the pandemic hit. The relief bills were intended as a bridge until riders returned. But riders haven’t returned in great numbers, and it is unclear when, if ever, they will. Transit trip levels in June were roughly half what they were in June 2019, before the pandemic, according to the Transportation Department. The bipartisan infrastructure bill directs another $39.2 billion to agencies for maintenance and expansion projects. But agencies can’t use it for day-to-day operating expenses such as paying salaries or buying fuel.

With the latest wave of return-to-office delays from COVID-19, some companies are considering a new possibility: Offices may be closed for nearly two years. That is raising concerns among executives that the longer people stay at home, the harder or more disruptive it could be to eventually bring them back, the Wall Street Journal reported. Many employees developed new routines during the pandemic, swapping commuting for exercise or blocking hours for uninterrupted work. Even staffers who once bristled at doing their jobs outside of an office have come to embrace the flexibility and productivity of at-home life over the past 18 months, many say. Surveys have shown that enthusiasm for remote work has only increased as the pandemic has stretched on. Return dates have been postponed repeatedly. On Thursday, Apple Inc. told corporate employees that its planned return to U.S. offices would be delayed until at least January. Companies such as Chevron Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. have postponed September returns, while tech companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. have pushed them to early next year. Lyft Inc. said it would call employees back to its San Francisco headquarters in February, about 23 months after the ride-sharing company first closed its offices.