Aurelia Butler

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(Reuters) -Tens of thousands of nurses and other healthcare workers launched a planned three-day strike at Kaiser Permanente facilities across the U.S. on Wednesday, after contract talks failed to meet the union deadline for reaching a settlement.The strike against Kaiser, one of the nation’s leading not-for-profit healthcare networks and managed-care organizations, marks the largest strike ever in the U.S. medical industry. Kaiser Permanente said its hospitals and emergency departments would remain open through the strike and staffed by doctors, managers and “contingency workers.” The tight U.S. labor market and inflation have led to contentious contract negotiations and strikes over pay and benefits for workers in numerous fields this year, including the automobile, rail, airline and entertainment industries.The Kaiser union had set a deadline of 6 a.m. PDT (1300 GMT) Wednesday to reach a deal on a new pact covering nurses, medical technicians and support staff in hundreds of hospitals across California, Oregon, Washington state, Colorado, Virginia and Washington, D.C.”Both Kaiser Permanente management and coalition union representatives are still at the bargaining table, having worked through the night in an effort to reach an agreement,” Kaiser said in a statement Wednesday. The coalition, made up of eight unions representing nurses, technicians and support staff, said the company has failed to negotiate in good faith in talks. The previous labor pact expired on Sept. 30.Kaiser nationwide employs 68,000 nurses and 213,000 technicians, clerical workers, and administrative staff, alongside its 24,000 doctors. The unions have been pressing for better wages and for Kaiser to fill more jobs. Staffing levels have been a major sticking point, with the union insisting Kaiser needs to hire 10,000 new healthcare workers to fill current vacancies.In Virginia and Washington, D.C., only optometrists and pharmacists would be on strike, but the impact on patients in California, Colorado, Oregon, and part of southwestern Washington state would be more substantial, a Kaiser spokeswoman said Tuesday.Nearly 309,700 workers have been involved in work stoppages through August this year, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, putting 2023 on track to become the busiest year for strikes since 2019. More

LONDON (Reuters) – Euro zone bond yields steadied as a selloff in U.S. Treasuries that sent Germany and Italian yields to over a decade high on Wednesday paused for breath, with European Central Bank policymakers suggesting the rate hike cycle is likely completed.Stronger than expected U.S. job openings data pointed to a still-tight labour market that could compel the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month and accelerated a global bond rout. Policymakers ruling out interest rate cuts in the face of above-target inflation has also put upward pressure on euro zone yields this week. On Wednesday, ECB Governing Council member Mario Centeno said that the central bank cycle of interest rate hikes has likely come to an end as inflation across the euro zone is retreating. Cyprus Central Bank Governor Constantinos Herodotou echoed that ECB monetary policy is being effective in reining in prices, while ECB Vice-President Luis de Guindos said that a lot of the policy tightening has yet to hit the economy.The German 10-year yield, the euro area’s benchmark, surged to a fresh 12-year high in earlier trading, and was last 2 basis points (bps) lower at 2.935%. Bond yields move inversely to prices.Italy’s 10-year government bond yield, the benchmark for the euro area’s periphery, rose to an 11-year high, and was last down 2.3 bps at 4.898%.”I believe they (euro zone bond yields) are pushed higher by a spike in real yields on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Althea Spinozzi, senior fixed income strategist at Saxo Bank.The 30-year Treasury yield rose above 5% for the first time since the early days of the global financial crisis in 2007. It was last 6.8 bps lower at 4.870%.The sharp rise in long-term rates suggests traders expect interest rates will remain higher for longer due to the continued resilience of the world’s largest economy, investors said.Germany’s 30-year yield climbed to its highest since August 2011, Italy’s 30-year yield rose to a 10-year high.Vikram Aggarwal, sovereign bond fund manager at Jupiter, said he expects yields on longer-dated Treasuries will continue to rise amid a potential sharp rise in U.S. government borrowing.In Europe, Spinozzi expects the selloff to continue with Germany’s 10-year yield rising as high as 3.5%.With the ECB reiterating that it remains data-dependant, investors were closely watching euro zone retail sales data showing a much bigger-than-expected fall in August, pointing to weaker consumer demand. Separate data showed on Wednesday that euro zone producer prices edged higher than expected month-on-month in August and plunged year-on-year on a sharp drop in energy prices. More

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth is expected to slow this year, dragged down by slumps in heavyweights South Africa, Nigeria and Angola, the World Bank said on Wednesday.Regional growth will slow to 2.5% in 2023 from 3.6% last year, the bank said in a report, before rebounding to a projected 3.7% next year and 4.1% in 2025. In per capita terms, the region has not recorded positive growth since 2015, as African countries’ economic activity has failed to keep pace with their rapid increase in population.Some 12 million Africans are entering the labour market each year, the World Bank wrote in its twice-yearly “Africa’s Pulse” report. But current growth patterns generate just 3 million jobs in the formal sector. “The region’s poorest and most vulnerable people continue to bear the economic brunt of this slowdown, as weak growth translates into slow poverty reduction and poor job growth,” Andrew Dabalen, the bank’s chief economist for Africa, said.More than half of the region’s countries – 28 out of 48 – have seen their 2023 growth forecasts revised downward from the World Bank’s April estimates. The continent’s most developed economy, South Africa, which is facing its worst energy crisis on record, is expected to grow just 0.5% this year. Economic growth in top oil producers Nigeria and Angola is expected to slow to 2.9% and 1.3% respectively.Sudan, which is in the midst of a major internal armed conflict that has destroyed infrastructure and brought the economy to a standstill, is expected to be hit by a 12% contraction, the Bank said. Excluding Sudan, regional growth would be 3.1%. “The region is projected to contract at an annual average rate per capita of 0.1% over 2015-2025, thus marking a lost decade of growth in the aftermath of the 2014-15 plunge in commodity prices,” the report stated. While sub-Saharan inflation is expected to ease to 7.3% this year from 9.3% in 2022, it remains above central bank targets in most countries.Meanwhile, recent military coups in Niger and Gabon in the wake of army takeovers in Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, as well as armed conflicts in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, have created additional risk in Africa.And mounting debt is draining resources, with 31% of regional revenues going to interest and loan payments in 2022. More