HEALTH CARE
Workers at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital stage a walkout
Workers at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain staged a walkout Tuesday to demand higher wages and job security amid a union contract negotiation that has lasted six months. Those who participated are among the lowest-wage employees at the hospital, including personal care attendants, service techs, dietary workers, housekeepers, mental health workers, and administrative staff — many make as little as $15.45 an hour. “These low wages are also a grave economic and social injustice, with a predominantly black and immigrant workforce being told that they should accept pay that falls well below what is needed to live and thrive in our state,” a statement from the union read. Once negotiations conclude, it would make the employees’ second contract with the health care union 1199SEIU. The first was ratified in late 2018. — DITI KOHLI
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GAMBLING
Encore Boston Harbor set a record in December
Wynn Resorts apparently had a happy holiday season in December at its Encore Boston Harbor Casino in Everett. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Tuesday reported that the casino’s slot-machine and table-game revenue for December reached a new monthly record of $68.5 million, exceeding the casino’s last gambling revenue record set in March 2022 by nearly $4 million. A spokesman declined to offer a detailed explanation, saying the publicly traded company prefers to offer that kind of detail on a quarterly basis. On the company’s last quarterly call, in November, Wynn chief executive Craig Billings said the company’s casinos in Las Vegas and Everett enjoyed strong revenue over the summer. In Everett, Wynn experienced record hotel revenue as well, Billings said, with trends continuing into the fall. The casino opened in mid-2019 and revenue was growing before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. Now, it’s clear the casino has bounced back. Executives there are currently preparing to offer sports betting in Massachusetts and hope to use it to drive more new customers to Encore Boston Harbor. Monthly revenue in December at the state’s other two casinos was more in line with activity in previous months: MGM Springfield reported $22.5 million in gambling revenue for the month while Plainridge Park in Plainville, which does not have table games, reported $12.3 million in slot-machine revenue. — JON CHESTO
TECHNOLOGY
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Apple unveils new versions of laptops and desktops
Apple rolled out its first new products of 2023 on Tuesday, offering faster versions of its high-end MacBook Pro laptops and the Mac mini desktop. The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros look the same as the prior models — which launched at the end of 2021 — but add more powerful M2 Pro and M2 Max chips to replace the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors. The new notebooks mark Apple’s first expansion of the M2 chip, which debuted in the MacBook Air and a low-end MacBook Pro last year. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
PHARMACIES
Walgreens ends limits on online purchases of kids’ medicines
Walgreens has ended limits it had imposed recently for online purchases of children’s over-the-counter fever-reducing products. The drugstore chain said improved supplies allowed it to lift its restriction of six products. The company had placed no limit on in-store purchases. Last month both Walgreens and CVS Health restricted purchases of some over-the-counter children’s medicines citing supply issues. CVS put a two-product limit on all children’s pain relief products bought through its pharmacies or online. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
FINANCE
Goldman Sachs made more than $1 billion less in the fourth quarter
Goldman Sachs is losing its shine. The doyen of investment banks released quarterly earnings on Tuesday that fell short even of analysts’ lowered expectations. Goldman did not just make significantly less money than expected in the fourth quarter of last year — $1.3 billion, down nearly 70 percent from the same period a year earlier — it also set aside nearly $1 billion to cover future loan losses, suggesting rising pessimism about what is to come. The results add to an ugly streak for the Wall Street giant. Last week, Goldman began laying off more than 3,000 employees, its heaviest staff cuts in more than a decade. It also laid out the steep cost of its yearslong, unsuccessful push into consumer banking, a big reason for why it is now stashing away money to pay for loans going sour. — NEW YORK TIMES
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ONLINE DATING
Match launches more expensive subscription option
Match Group Inc.’s dating app Hinge is rolling out a new subscription tier that could cost as much as $60 a month, betting that the platform’s fast-growing segment of Gen-Z users will see it as a worthwhile investment. The new premium level, which is being tested at $50-$60 a month, will be a significant increase over the current paid version of $35 a month and will be introduced globally in the first quarter. It will offer Hinge’s “highly motivated daters” enhanced features to boost their exposure. The people that subscribers “like” will be seen faster by other users and the offering will provide better recommendations of profiles Hinge thinks the user will be most interested in. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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PHARMACEUTICALS
Pfizer expands program for poor countries
Pfizer expanded its program to offer its products at not-for-profit prices in poor countries to include 500 drugs and vaccines. The program, available in 45 low- and lower-middle-income countries, had previously offered just 23 products at the lower prices, Pfizer said Tuesday in a statement. It includes medicines and vaccines, both patented and off-patent, under a program called An Accord for a Healthier World that started in May. Pfizer originally announced the program at the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, committing to lower prices for treatments for infectious diseases, certain cancers, and rare and inflammatory diseases that annually take the lives of about 1 million people in the affected countries. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Fidelity-backed platform reducing costs
OSL, a digital-assets platform backed by Fidelity International, is cutting costs by about a third as turbulence in crypto markets continues to reverberate throughout the industry. The decision to cut costs was made in response to “current market conditions” and included “headcount reduction,” Hugh Madden, chief executive of OSL’s parent company BC Technology Group said in a statement on Tuesday. Hong Kong-based OSL declined to disclose how many positions it cut. The job cuts make OSL the latest cryptocurrency firm to slash headcount as the industry continues to grapple with asset prices that remain far below their peak in late 2021. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
INSURANCE
Liberty Mutual considering selling Latin American businesses
Liberty Mutual is exploring a sale of its Latin America businesses as part of the US insurer’s divestment plans from non-core markets, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Boston-based firm is working with JPMorgan Chase & Co. on the potential sale, which could fetch about $1 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. The assets include operations in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador, the people said. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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