Daily Business Report-Nov. 27, 2019

Packages on a conveyor belt at the Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, April 12, 2016.

Behind Black Friday

Dan Morain | CalMatters

Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Riverside County are injured more than four times as often warehouse workers nationwide, reports a new investigation by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. And the injury rate at 23 Amazon warehouses the report examined was more than double the industry’s national average.

“The root of Amazon’s success appears to be at the root of its injury problem, too: the blistering pace of delivering packages to its customers,” says the blistering report from Reveal.

An Amazon worker in Tracy tells Reveal the pace of work became unmanageable after robots were added to the warehouse, and two Southern California warehouse workers say they got urinary tract infections from holding their bladders so they wouldn’t get docked for taking time off to use the restroom.

____________________

Are robots coming for California’s jobs? 

CalMatters

In today’s increasingly automated economy, that’s certainly the fear. Technology has always generated economic churn, destroying some jobs and creating others. Already advances have generated a whole new sector of “gig” employment, and deeply disrupted other workplaces, from brick-and-mortar bookstores to newspapers to travel agencies.

Over the next decade, jobs mostly held by the working poor appear to be most at risk of displacement: food services, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, agriculture and retail. The least likely to be automated by 2030? Professional, management and educational services, and jobs in health care and social assistance.

State leaders fear that, if something isn’t done before the next wave of automation, what’s left will be “f-ing feudalism,” to borrow one politician’s expletive. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to figure out how to make future jobs pay well. A key question his Future of Work Commission is asking: What role should organized labor have?

Read more…

____________________

Irvine Company signs five new leases

at Centerside in Mission Valley

Irvine Company announced five new leases at Centerside in Mission Valley, which has 13- and 16-story towers. Occupying a combined total of nearly 26,000 square feet at Centerside I at 3111 Camino del Rio North, the five customers are:

• SGPA Planning & Architecture, a California-based architecture firm with expertise in retail, residential, education, senior living, and wellness to create mixed-use communities, which is relocating its headquarters and taking 6,700 square feet.
• Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, ranked as one of the top 10 mortgage companies in America by Mortgage Executive Magazine, which is leasing 6,300 square feet. Fairway also leases space at 100 Spectrum Center Drive in Irvine, also an Irvine Company workplace community.
• Horrocks Engineers Inc., a full-service civil engineering and professional services firm, which is expanding its California presence and occupying 6,900 square feet.
• Pearlman Brown & Wax LLP, a law firm providing innovative counseling and litigation services to employers and their carriers with offices located throughout California.
• Anser Advisory LLC, a national capital program and project advisory firm offering solutions to clients’ capital program challenges.

____________________

 

Lavine, Lofgren, Morris & Engelberg

adds three tax managers

The accounting firm Lavine, Lofgren, Morris & Engelberg, LLP  announces the promotions of Chelsea Castillo, Kristi Norg and Drew Parker to the position of tax manager.

Castillo has been with the firm since 2014 and has experience in a variety of tax areas, including matters involving closely held companies, pass-through entities and high net worth individuals.  Castillo is also an active volunteer with The Preuss School, serving as a mentor to middle school and high school students. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo and holds a Master of Science in Accounting with an emphasis in Taxation from San Diego State University.

Norg has also been with LLME since 2014 and has more than nine years of experience providing a wide range of accounting and tax services to mid- and high-net worth individuals. Her expertise encompasses all manner of trusts – grantor, irrevocable, marital and credit shelter, charitable, life insurance, GST exempt, as well grantor and non-grantor foreign trusts with U.S. beneficiaries.

Parker has been with the firm since 2015 and has experience providing accounting and tax services to clients across multiple industries, including manufacturing, food and beverage, professional services, real estate, software and small business. Drew is also an active member of CalCPA. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from California State University San Marcos.

____________________

SDCCU Holiday Bowl ticket

prices increase on Dec. 1

Ticket prices for the 2019 San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl will increase on Dec. 1. This year’s game will match top teams from the Pac-12 and Big Ten Conferences.

Current prices for the Holiday Bowl range from $35 to $175 and will increase $10 per ticket in all areas. Family 4-Packs are also available for $240 and includes (4) loge level tickets, (4) hot dogs and (4) sodas. Tickets can be purchased through the San Diego Bowl Games office at SDCCU Stadium – Gate A, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m or by calling (619)-283-5808. They are also available online at www.HolidayBowl.com and through any TicketMaster outlet or over the phone at (800) 745-3000.

This year’s 42st annual game will be played on Friday, Dec. 27 at 5 p.m. televised nationally on FS1.

____________________

San Diego Repertory Theatre to present

Tony Award-winning play, ‘The Humans’

San Diego Repertory Theater will present “The Humans,” the Tony Award-winning play

written by Stephen Karam and directed by REP Associate Artistic Director Todd Salovey Jan. 9 through Feb. 2, 2020 at The REP, 79 Horton Plaza Downtown.

Erik Blake has brought his family from Pennsylvania to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s new apartment in lower Manhattan. As darkness falls outside the ramshackle, pre-war duplex, eerie things start to go bump in the night. Soon, family tensions will reach a boiling point. Playwright Stephen Karam (Sons of the Prophet, Speech & Debate) takes a look at the hopes and heartbreaks of the modern American family in this uproariously funny and deeply chilling drama.