Business

Many workers are gearing up for a shortened Thanksgiving workweek, but new data suggests a significant number of companies are considering shortening their workweeks on a permanent basis. About 40% of companies surveyed as part of the EY Future Workplace Index from Ernst & Young LLP said they have either started using a four-day workweek or are in the process of implementing one. The survey included more than 500 C-suite and business leaders across multiple industries in the United States. As we’ve noted, an increasing number of employers are exploring four-day workweeks as they seek to differentiate themselves in what remains a tight market for talent, despite economic headwinds.

The auction for famed Fells Point seafood joint Bertha’s Mussels was canceled Thursday as the owners work on completing a deal with an unknown buyer. Bids for the property through Alex Cooper Auctioneers reached over $1.3 million before the online auction was canceled minutes before it was scheduled to close at noon Thursday. Bidding began Nov. 12.

The organizers of Howard County’s first Asia Collective Night Market, that many called a “disaster” because of gridlocked traffic and long lines, are trying their hand at another cultural festival — this time hosting a similar event in Baltimore, but with the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore. Their latest venture, the Lunar Cultural Festival, will be held at West Shore Park at the Inner Harbor Jan. 21 and 22. It will celebrate the first day of the lunar calendar, which is widely observed in countries in East, South and Southeast Asia.

Maryland sports fans looking to place bets from the comfort of their couch on Thanksgiving received good news on Thursday. Mobile sports betting will officially be up and running in the state on Wednesday, Nov. 23, the day before the holiday, said John Martin, director of Maryland Lottery & Gaming during a Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency Commission meeting Thursday morning. He expects seven of the 10 licensed companies will be ready to take bets on that date, with an exact start time still to be determined.

Baltimore-area baristas joined workers from more than 100 Starbucks locations across the U.S. on Thursday in a “Red Cup Day” walkout to protest low wages and poor working conditions and to pressure the coffee giant to negotiate with newly formed unions. The one-day strike, which included Starbucks workers in Baltimore and White Marsh, marked the largest labor action since a campaign to unionize the company’s stores started late last year.

The Maryland Board of Public Works has ordered an investigation after a minority-owned firm accused Carroll Independent Fuel of a “bait and switch” in which it replaced the firm as a subcontractor on a $289 million state fuel contract. Timothy Maloney, an attorney representing Akata Global, a Columbia-based certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), said the firm shouldn’t have been dropped by Baltimore-based Carroll after winning the contract to manage the supply and distribution of state fuel products in 2021.

T. Rowe Price Group Inc. has laid off 2% of its employees across the globe, citing an “exceedingly challenging year” for the industry and company. The Baltimore investment firm’s management committee sent a memo to employees to let them know that the company was downsizing. “We made targeted expense reductions across the enterprise, including further reducing our third-party spending and eliminating roles, with approximately 2% of our associate population departing the firm,” a spokeswoman said in confirming the contents of the memo.

Employees from more than 100 Starbucks stores plan to walk off the job Thursday, hoping to shutter shops for the day in protest of the company’s approach to union contract negotiations as the coffee giant launches holiday products. Leaders of Starbucks Workers United, which represents nearly 7,000 employees at hundreds of stores, say the company has not bargained in good faith and needlessly delayed talks on labor contracts. The company has countered that certain conditions for negotiations — namely, allowing union members to silently observe proceedings on Zoom — are impermissible.