General Electric factory workers demand the company to manufacture ventilators, a woman turns into a vegetable during a remote meeting, Apple is upping aid against COVID-19 pandemic.
General Electric factory workers are staging a silent protest, demanding the company to rehire them for ventilator production. The protest sparked after General Electric announced that it would fire 2,600 workers and temporarily layoff 50 per cent of its maintenance workers. Furious over the threat to their livelihood, workers said it would impede the rate of ventilator production amid the shortage. The company said that while it’s upping the effort to produce ventilators, it also needs to consider its obligations to its other customers, such as the U.S. military.
Remote meetings are prone to a plethora of mishaps, but it’s not every day that you get turned into a vegetable on stream. Trending on Twitter, during a routine meeting, Political Director Lizet Ocampo was turned into a potato by a camera filter she had downloaded. After several failed attempts to disable the off, Ocampo resigned to her fate and accepted her new role for the duration of the meeting.
Apple is doubling down its efforts to help stop the pandemic. To date, it has pledged more than US$7 million, or 50 million yuan, to aid China’s on-going battle against COVID-19. In addition, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company had donated 10 million masks to the U.S. and Europe. The decision makes sense, as the sooner it helps the world get over the virus, the sooner Apple can reopen its retail locations outside of China. The company has already expected shortfalls in sales, partly due to closed manufacturing during China’s quarantine period.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Alex Coop, thanks for listening.
