The daily business briefing: November 21, 2019

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1. UAW president resigns after union accuses him of embezzlement
2. Congress approves Hong Kong Human Rights bill
3. Google tightens rules on targeting of political ads
4. Stock futures struggle as China vows to 'strive' for trade deal
5. GM accuses Fiat Chrysler of bribing union

published 21 November 2019

1. UAW president resigns after union accuses him of embezzlement

Gary Jones resigned as president of the United Auto Workers on Wednesday after the union moved to oust him and another official under the cloud of a broadening federal corruption investigation. The resignation came two months after The Detroit News linked Jones to a federal investigation into an alleged conspiracy to embezzle more than $1 million in union dues to spend on personal luxuries. Jones has not been charged with any crime. Jones' lawyer, Bruce Maffeo, said Jones made the decision to step down after "much discussion with family and friends," because he believed that staying "will only distract the union from its core mission to improve the lives of its members and their families." Maffeo said Jones decided to go before learning the union had filed internal charges accusing him of falsifying expense records.

The House on Wednesday passed a bill seeking to support anti-government protesters in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong. The House also passed a measure to block sales of some munitions to police in the semi-autonomous city, a former British colony. The Senate unanimously passed both bills, sending them to President Trump's desk at an awkward time, as his administration tries to negotiate a deal to end a trade war with China in time to tout the accomplishment on the 2020 campaign trail. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing "condemns and firmly opposes" the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which supports the protesters. The House vote fueled concerns about the prospects of a trade deal, weighing on stocks.

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Google announced in a blog post Wednesday that it will make it harder for political advertisers to target specific types of people starting in January. The company said buyers will only be able to tailor political ads based on gender, age, postal code, and other broad categories. Currently, buyers can use political affiliation and other information from public voter data. The policy will take effect next week in the U.K., in time for a December general election called to break a deadlock over Brexit. Google also reiterated that it won't permit ads making "demonstrably false" claims that could damage voter trust, although Google Ads vice president Scott Spencer said in the blog post that "no one can sensibly adjudicate every political claim, counterclaim, and insinuation."

U.S. stock index futures struggled early Thursday as markets continued to focus on U.S.-China trade tensions. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq shifted back and forth between losses and gains of 0.1 percent or less. On Wednesday, all three of the main U.S. indexes closed down by 0.4 percent or more after Congress approved two bills aiming to support anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, a Chinese-ruled semi-autonomous former British colony. Beijing responded by accusing the U.S. of meddling in Hong Kong's affairs, raising concerns about negotiations to end the U.S.-China trade war. On Thursday, China Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said the two sides were continuing to address their differences and "strive for a phase-one trade agreement."

General Motors filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing rival Fiat Chrysler of bribing United Auto Workers officials in contract negotiations to get a competitive advantage over other automakers. The lawsuit, filed in Michigan, says Fiat Chrysler gave union officers more than $1.5 million in money and other things of value during negotiations on two collective bargaining agreements in 2011 and 2015. "While a full accounting of the damage inflicted on GM is unknowable at this time without discovering additional details of the scheme, GM estimates that it has incurred massive monetary damage in the form of higher costs that it seeks in relief," the complaint said. The lawsuit came hours before UAW's president, Gary Jones, resigned under a widening corruption investigation.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.