Aurelia Butler

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(Reuters) -A tight U.S. labor market, expiration of cyclical contracts and high living costs have triggered tough negotiations for pay hikes and other benefits by workers and strikes and protests across industries.Some 309,700 workers have been involved in stoppages through August this year, as per preliminary U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, putting 2023 on track to become the busiest year for strikes since 2019. Some sectors and companies that faced tough negotiations in 2023:MEDIAHollywood is experiencing its first dual work stoppage of writers and actors in 63 years, halting productions across the industry and costing the California economy billions of dollars. The strike is over compensation, staffing and residual payments among other issues.AUTOMOTIVEThe United Auto Workers (UAW) union has launched a targeted strike over pay and benefits against Ford (NYSE:F), GM and Chrysler parent Stellantis (NYSE:STLA), targeting one U.S. assembly plant at each company.The union would announce on Friday more U.S. plants to strike if no serious progress was made in talks with the Detroit Three automakers.PARCEL DELIVERYTeamsters union workers at United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) ratified a new five-year contract in August, a deal that raises pay, eliminates a two-tier wage system for drivers, provides another paid holiday and ends forced overtime.FedEx (NYSE:FDX) pilots have been involved in a stand-off with the parcel delivery firm over wages and legacy pensions. Pilots rejected a tentative deal in July and negotiations are expected to restart.AIRLINES & AEROSPACE FIRMSPilots at several airlines including American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL), Delta Airlines (NYSE:DAL), United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ:UAL), Spirit Airlines (NYSE:SAVE), Jetblue Airways negotiated new job contracts this year.Members of some unions like the Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) Pilots Association have voted to authorize a strike if a new contract is not reached.Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE:SPR) negotiated a new contract to end a strike that led to a week-long work stoppage at its plant in Wichita, Kansas.MANUFACTURINGU.S. steel producer Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Inc has reached a tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers union on a new three-year labor agreement for its Northshore mining operations.U.S. Steel, which is reviewing multiple proposals ranging from partial acquisition to an entire buyout, is embroiled in a tussle with the United Steel Workers union. The company’s unionized workers say they essentially have the power to veto any transaction they do not approve of.CONSUMER & RETAILMore than 3,000 workers at more than 150 Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) stores in the U.S. held strikes in June, following claims the company had banned Pride Month decorations at some of its cafes.Thousands of Los Angeles-area hotel staffers went on a three-day strike in July over improved wages, benefits and working conditions. Union leaders representing the workers have threatened further walkouts.HEALTHCAREMore than 7,000 nurses went on a three-day strike in New York City over staffing levels and pay hikes in January.CANNABISUnions representing cannabis workers have also increased pressure on companies in the sector this year. Workers at Green Thumb Industries (OTC:GTBIF)’ Chicago-area RISE dispensaries went on a 13-day unfair labor practices (ULP) strike in April, which was the longest ULP strike at a cannabis retailer in U.S. history.Labor unions secured new contract agreements at multistate operator-owned cannabis dispensaries in Illinois and in New Jersey in July.ENERGYUnionized workers at Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX)’s refinery in Roxana, Illinois, ratified a contract with the refiner in late-stage negotiations, averting a potential strike.The union had been in talks with the refiner since summer, when it rejected a company proposal and sought additional benefits for holiday and vacation hours and pay, among other improvements. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As the UAW strike enters its fifth day, the Biden administration is hobbled by any lack of legal authority to steer the talks and struggling to figure out UAW President Shawn Fain’s negotiating strategy or getting a clear read on his leadership style, three sources said. The Biden White House is having discussions about ways to blunt any economic fallout from an extended auto workers strike, the sources said, as U.S. officials acknowledge they have a limited role to play in talks between General Motors (NYSE:GM), Ford (NYSE:F) and Chrysler-owner Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) and the union. Top administration officials have held multiple calls with union leaders, Michigan lawmakers, company executives, suppliers, outside labor advisers and economists in the run-up to the strike to discuss aid for workers, suppliers and the local state economy, while both parties continue negotiations, one of the sources said.The White House has started an “inter-agency process” to study the economic implications of the strike, with a focus on workers, said a fourth source familiar with the matter, who described the process as “routine.” The White House and the administration have discussed “mitigation efforts” in the event of a full work stoppage, not in response to the actions taken by the union currently, two sources said.White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said “no decision has been made” on offering aid or lessening the economic impact.On Friday, Biden sided clearly with the union, telling automakers to concede more to workers who walked off the job at Detroit’s largest car companies and share record profits fairly, and said he would dispatch two of his top officials to Detroit to support both sides in the negotiations. But he was rebuked by UAW’s Fain, who said “this battle is not about the President,” and the two officials, Gene Sperling, and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, were still in Washington as of Monday evening. A White House official said “their goal is not to intervene or to serve as mediator but to help support the negotiations in any way both parties feel is constructive.” “Nobody has a read on Fain,” said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial & Labor Relations. “He’s not just a stranger to the Biden administration but was a stranger to the all of the big three,” he said, referring to the automakers. Fain has led the UAW for less than six months.Fain, whose union has yet to endorse any presidential candidate for 2024, has also rejected Republican Donald Trump’s entreaties. “Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” Fain said, after Trump said he would come to Detroit to speak on Sept. 27. AID FOR SUPPLIERS, MICHIGAN? Top officials such as the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Joelle Gamble has held calls with auto suppliers recently, the sources said.Aid for suppliers has been thrown around “since the minute it became clear there could be a strike” but those talks are “premature and fluid,” one of the sources said. The White House believes the biggest ‘Tier-1’ suppliers will still be able to weather the storm, but smaller companies on the supply chain will struggle if the strike lasts more than six to eight weeks, one of the sources said.The US strike could slow an outperforming U.S. economy should it drag on – even risking the first monthly net drop in payroll employment in nearly three years – but is unlikely on its own to trigger a recession, economists say. Pushing original equipment manufacturers to ramp up production and lessen the impact on the country’s supply chains has also been discussed by industry on these calls, two sources said. The White House has also been discussing with Michigan lawmakers ways to limit the impact a strike would have on the state’s economy, which has suffered from rising transportation costs, wage inflation and Covid, the sources added. Among the concerns discussed were job losses and layoffs, drop in personal income, lower tax revenue for the state, demand for electric vehicles and how wage gains must keep pace with inflation, the sources said.The economic fallout discussions didn’t just start. White House chief of staff Jeff Zients had a conversation with the AFL-CIO’s executive council at its headquarters in July to discuss “core labor issues” and what the administration can do to support workers, one of the sources said. A spokesperson for the AFL-CIO did not comment.Besides Sperling, Su, Gamble and Zients, top White House officials involved in the effort include National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti. More

DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ireland’s central bank said the country’s inflation outlook is broadly unchanged from three months ago but warned government it risks keeping prices even higher for longer if it goes ahead with further planned stimulus in next month’s budget.The central bank on Tuesday nudged up its 2023 forecast for inflation, as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), to 5.4% from 5.3% in June, but cut its forecasts for 2024 and 2025 slightly to 3.2% and 2.5% respectively.The government said in July that it intends to hike core public spending by 6.1% or 6.4 billion euros next year, breaking its own budget rule to cap expenditure growth at 5% for the second successive year.Finance Minister Michael McGrath said plans to add temporary supports on top of that to help households and businesses with cost-of-living pressures would not be on the scale of the 4 billion euro package of one-off measures introduced a year ago.”There is a price to be paid for spending more money in terms of the impact on inflation,” McGrath told reporters on Tuesday, saying ministers needed to be conscious of the central bank’s advice. “But there are benefits as well to the people who need that extra support so that is why I think insofar as possible, we should seek to target government spending to the households and businesses that need them the most.”The central bank’s inflation outlook kept Ireland in line with forecasts for the euro zone as a whole, and McGrath said the pre-budget forecasts his department has prepared for economic growth, inflation and employment are broadly similar.The central bank trimmed its forecasts for wage growth to 2025, saying there were signs of moderation in labour demand. It cited August job postings that were 25% above pre-pandemic levels versus a recent peak of 54% and year-on-year wage growth for those jobs that slowed to a 15-month low of 3.8%.The central bank also cut its forecast for modified domestic demand – it and the government’s preferred way of measuring the strength of the economy – but said this was primarily due to growth being revised higher for 2022.Upside risks to inflation and downside risks to economic growth are more pronounced than they were in June, the bank added. More