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A union representing thousands of city workers in Philadelphia and the city have reached a deal to end a more than weeklong strike that halted residential curbside trash pickup and affected other services, officials said Wednesday.Nearly 10,000 blue-collar employees from District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees had walked off the job July 1, seeking better pay and benefits after failing to agree with the city on a new contract.The tentative agreement was announced on what would have been the ninth day of the strike. That period, which included the Fourth of July holiday weekend, created a backlog of trash. Some drop-off centers were overflowing.Mayor Cherelle Parker announced the end of the strike and the agreement with the union on social media. “The work stoppage involving the District Council 33 and the City of Philadelphia is OVER,” she posted.“We have reached a tentative agreement with District Council 33, which must be ratified by its membership on a new three-year contract that, coupled with the one-year contract extension we agreed to last fall, will increase DC 33 members’ pay by 14 percent over my four years in office.”Parker said, “we’ll have much more to say about this historic deal” at City Hall.District Council 33 is the largest of four major unions representing city workers. Its membership includes 911 dispatchers, trash collectors, water department workers and many others. Police and firefighters weren’t part of the strike.Last week, judges had sided with the city in ordering some critical employees back to work at the city’s 911 centers, water department and airport.“The strike is over! Details forthcoming,” the union posted on Facebook Wednesday morning.Union President Greg Boulware briefly spoke with reporters after the deal was reached. “We did the best we could with the circumstances we had in front of us,” he said.The city had designated about 60 sites as drop-off centers for residential trash, but some were overflowing, while striking workers on hand asked residents not to cross the picket line. Most libraries across the city are were closed, with support workers and security guards off the job. Asssociated Press
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E-Commerce
Some news stories are gobsmackingly obvious in their importance. Others are complete nonstories. So what to make of the departure of Linda Yaccarino after two years as CEO of X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk? On the surface, its a story. But truthfully, her exit is about as newsworthy as the departure of a rank-and-file programmer. Her departing tweet was chipper (she called X a digital town square for all voices), but its difficult to discern whatif anythingwill change in her absence. After two incredible years, Ive decided to step down as CEO of . When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. Im immensely grateful to him for entrusting me— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 9, 2025 She arrived in mid-2023 as the slick ad chief meant to lure blue-chip brands back to a platform Musk had turned into a carnival of chaos. Two bruising years later, ad dollars remain skittish, the hate-speech headlines louder (she exits in the middle of xAIs Grok deciding it hates Jews and doesn’t care who knows about it), and the companys fate still yoked to Musks midnight posting habit rather than Yaccarinos boardroom polish. Yaccarino was a puppet CEO, and even months into her tenure, Musk seemed to lose interest in tugging at the strings. Her brand safety crusade evaporated each time Musk reposted conspiracies or amplified antisemitic tropes, detonating whatever confidence shed just sold. Her promise of a changed X during a Senate hearing was promptly undercut by the owner bragging about slashing bureaucracy. Advertisers that dared to dip a toe back in bolted again after Musks live-streamed harsh instruction to nervous brandsGo fuck yourselfmade her Cannes talking points look like fan fiction. (X did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment.) The root problem was structural: Yaccarino accepted a job whose remit was satire. She was asked to run the company, but given no control over product, policy, or the owners timeline. Her calendar filled with advertiser therapy sessions while Musk torched their brand guidelines in real time. That dissonance turned a respected NBCUniversal exec into the corporate equivalent of a cardboard cutout: a caricature of boardroom propriety, rolled onstage for investor calls, wheeled off when the real show began. Critics might argue no mortal could tame Musks libertarian bent. Perhaps. But Yaccarino compounded the risk by embracing it. A chief executive who cannot veto a single repost or freeze a buggy rollout was a mascot, not a leader. Her legacy, then, is cautionary: credibility cannot be subcontracted. And brand safety doesn’t mean anything if you don’t follow words with action. Yaccarino departs with her résumé intact enough for the conference circuit. We can probably expect a TED talk on leading through turbulence by Christmas, and wink-wink appearances on podcasts (NDA permitting). In the end, Yaccarinos departure is newsworthy only as a footnote in Musks ongoing demolition of X; she is, ultimately, just another professional reputation left smoldering in his wake.
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E-Commerce
After only two years on the job, Linda Yaccarino announced on X Wednesday that she is stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s social media platform. Musk hired Yaccarino to run X in 2023. When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company, Yaccarino posted. Im immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App. Yaccarino’s post did not indicate why she was leaving. Yaccarino’s departure comes as X has been plagued by criticism of its right-wing partisan politics and growing antagonistic tone. Meanwhile, Musk himself has also been highly criticized for his role in gutting a number of U.S. federal agencies in the name of efficiency through his brainchild, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) resulting in Tesla’s stock tanking, Tesla Takedowns boycotts, and his own plummeting ratings. The news comes days after Musk’s artificial intelligence platform Grok faced backlash for antisemitic and offensive posts. (X users shared Grok posts that used the phrase “every damn time” in response to Jewish surnames, which has been seen as an antisemitic meme, as well as screenshots of it openly praising Hitler.) Musks artificial intelligence company xAI built Grok, and then integrated it into the X platform. In response, the Anti-Defamation League responded on X that Grok “is irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple.” “This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms,” it also wrote. On Wednesday, it added, “In this moment, tech companies need to be leaning forward to fight antisemitism and extremism. Instead, many are taking huge steps back. ADL data shows that when social media platforms make cuts to moderation tools, an explosion of antisemitism follows.” Fast Company has reached out to X for comment on Yaccarino’s departure, as well as the Grok backlash.
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E-Commerce
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