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Lamborghini implements 4-day workweek for production workers

Wikipedia Lamborghini is planning to implement a four-day workweek for its production workers. The new workweek is a historic industry win; other auto unions have failed to secure the same terms. Other companies that use the four-day workweek have reported high levels of productivity.  On Tuesday, Lamborghini announced a deal with its unions to implement a four-day workweek for car production workers. The unions called the agreement "historical," per Reuters. It is the first agreement of its kind in the European auto industry that reduces working hours without a wage cut — instead, it includes a raise and a one-time bonus of $1,082 in the next month. Overall, the new workweek will mean production workers work up to 31 fewer days a year, according to Road & Track. Lamborghini isn't the only company in Europe to adopt the shortened workweek — others, like the bank Intesa Sanpaolo and eyewear company EssilorLuxottica, have also recently made the change, per Reuters. Companies in Britain that have made the change have reported increased work productivity, better job retention and recruitment rates, and fewer sick days, according to Reuters. Other unions in the auto industry could not get companies like Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis to approve the shortened work hours, per The Street. "Work less and work better, this is the principle that guided this negotiation, and which is part of a comprehensive reasoning," FIOM and FIM-CISL unions said in a statement, per Road & Track. It's been a year of historic developments for the auto industry. In late October, the United Auto Workers strike ended strikes and made tentative agreements with all Big Three Detroit automakers, per previous Business Insider reporting. The deals included 25% raises, cost-of-living adjustments, and more accessible paths to full pay. Plants/Manufacturing UAW/Unions Lamborghini

Lamborghini Aventador SV Roadster gets chilly shakedown

It was only days ago that Lamborghini gave the Aventador Superveloce its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show, but apparently the Italian brand has been hard at work on the next variant too. For those that want a 740-horsepower, 6.5-liter V12 singing a sweet song just behind their ears with the top down, then Lambo is testing an SV Roadster in the arctic. While the model is wearing copious camouflage and some very cool spotlights, the removable roof panel is still fairly obvious in several of these spy photos. Beyond the top, it doesn't look like Lambo is doing much to the body design, though. All of the pieces here can also be found on the SV coupe. There's no word when the SV Roadster might debut. Although with the standard model already complete, development of the convertible probably shouldn't take too long. The official unveiling might even be before the end of the year, especially with the coupe beginning sales in Europe in the spring. Featured Gallery Lamborghini Aventador SV Roadster Spy Shots Image Credit: CarPix Design/Style Spy Photos Lamborghini Convertible Performance Supercars lamborghini aventador sv lamborghini aventador lp 750-4 superveloce lamborghini aventador sv roadster

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.