I'm not offering a moral judgment, or making a statement about the efficacy of those tactics. I'm saying it's nothing new.

(On a related note, there are some regulations around mass layoffs: https://www.doleta.gov/programs/factsht/warn.htm

American companies will run a series of layoffs JUST below the limit to avoid the reporting mandates! Kind of like structuring deposits of $9,999 to avoid the reporting requirement at $10k. Interesting.)