Economy

The United Automobile Workers union hopes the agreements with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis will help it make inroads at other companies.Members of the United Automobile Workers union have given their backing to new contracts with the three big U.S. automakers, agreements that deliver hefty wage increases and other gains that had eluded the union for more than 20 years.In the most closely contested vote, the tentative contract agreement at General Motors won the support of 55 percent of the nearly 36,000 members casting ballots, according to a tally from all the G.M. locals that the union posted on Thursday.Tentative agreements with Ford Motor and Stellantis, the maker of brands including Jeep and Chrysler, appeared headed for approval by more decisive margins, nearly complete results there showed.A spokesman for the union confirmed the accuracy of the tallies but declined to comment further.The agreements are similar across the three automakers and raise the top wage for production workers 25 percent, to more than $40 over four and a half years, from $32. They were reached last month after a six-week wave of strikes that hobbled the companies — a strategy spearheaded by the union’s new president, Shawn Fain, who had vowed to take a more adversarial approach to negotiations than his predecessors.Workers leaving the Ford Chicago Assembly Plant on Thursday.Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesThe agreements appear to have quickly reverberated across the auto industry, with Toyota, Hyundai and Honda announcing significant wage increase at nonunion plants in the United States only days later.“We call that the U.A.W. bump, and that stands for ‘U Are Welcome,’” Mr. Fain said in testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this week. “And we’re very proud of that. And when these workers decide to organize and join the U.A.W., they’re going to realize the full benefit of union membership and get what they’re fully due.”The new contracts also included larger company contributions to workers’ retirement plans and the right to strike over plant closures. All three automakers declined to comment on the ratification votes.Mr. Fain said the union was seeking to capitalize on its momentum by waging muscular organizing campaigns at nonunion plants, and, in remarks submitted to the Senate committee, he added that thousands of workers were already contacting the union and signing union cards.But even Mr. Fain’s tough approach in the talks with the Big Three did not yield terms attractive enough to many union members. G.M. workers at several large plants voted against the tentative agreement by large margins.In contrast, members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters recently approved a new contract at United Parcel Service with 86 percent support, while a new contract between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood studios passed with 99 percent support.Rebecca Givan, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University, said Mr. Fain had achieved a major victory despite having taken office only a few months earlier with a goal of reorienting the union.Huey Harris, at the G.M. plant in Flint, said he had voted in favor of the contract despite his belief that it didn’t offer veteran workers like him enough gains.Nic Antaya for The New York TimesDr. Givan said the union’s approach of initially striking at one plant at each of the three automakers and ramping up over time had “really upended a lot of conventional wisdom” in the labor movement and had proved unusually successful at reversing some concessions that the union had accepted years earlier, like the suspension of a cost-of-living adjustment.“This shows that if workers build enough power, they can win things back,” she said.U.A.W. members at Mack Truck also ratified a contract on Wednesday, after rejecting an initial agreement with the company.Across the three automakers, skepticism toward the agreements arose in large part from veteran workers who felt that the proposed contracts did not go far enough to compensate them for years of concessions and weak wage growth, even given strong gains for newer workers. Wages for some newer workers will more than double over the next four years.Huey Harris, a G.M. employee at a large truck assembly plant in Flint, Mich., who has worked at the company for over 20 years, said the deal should have gone further in rewarding veteran workers, though he ultimately voted for it. “The traditional people didn’t think they were offered enough in the contract,” he said.Curtis March, who works at Ford’s Chicago plant and made the inflation-adjusted equivalent of more than $40 an hour in the early 1990s, will make about $36 in the first year of the new contract, he said.Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesSeveral longtime employees of the Big Three automakers said that even after the large gains of the new contract, they would not be making more than when they started their careers.Curtis March, who works at Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant, said he made about $18 an hour once he reached the top wage for production workers at the company in the early 1990s, equivalent to more than $40 today when adjusted for inflation. He will make about $36 in the first year of the new contract.Mr. March said the deal was likely to pass at Ford because it placated more recent employees, who outnumber veterans like him. Workers at his plant approved the deal after voting against several previous contracts.Despite the ultimate success, the path to ratifying the contracts has included some internal strains for Mr. Fain and the union. Unite All Workers for Democracy, a reform group that played a key role in electing Mr. Fain and six other members of the U.A.W. executive board to their positions, declined to formally recommend that union members approve the contract even after Mr. Fain urged the group to do so at a recent meeting, according to three people familiar with the meeting. Instead, Unite All Workers passed a resolution committing it to stay neutral during the ratification vote, though it stated that the group “celebrates the record gains made in this agreement.”Two of these people also said the union’s General Motors department had been less communicative and less proactive in distributing information about the contract to local union officials and members than the Ford and Stellantis departments.The union declined to comment on these developments.LaDonna Newman, a longtime Ford worker, said about the U.A.W.’s president, Shawn Fain, “I give him a lot of kudos for having the courage to go against the corporations.”Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesRatification could also bring political benefits to President Biden, who waded into the negotiations over the summer and fall, and who risked angering business leaders by increasingly siding with the union’s members.Administration officials were taken aback in August when Mr. Fain called for a 40 percent raise for autoworkers and a four-day workweek. Executives at the Big Three called the White House to ask if Mr. Fain was serious. A senior administration official said Biden aides had reassured them that the union wanted a deal, but acknowledged that the negotiations could go quite differently from the way the automakers were used to.In mid-September, when Mr. Biden was in New York for meetings at the United Nations General Assembly, he joined aides on a video call to make a decision that he and his team had been building toward for weeks: to join autoworkers on a picket line in Detroit. That decision infuriated executives, the administration official said, but the White House saw it as a victory for the president and for workers, by making a clear statement about where Mr. Biden stood in the negotiations.Some autoworkers argued that the union had erred by failing to expand the strike, which eventually included about one-third of the companies’ unionized workers in the United States, even more.LaDonna Newman, another longtime Ford worker who opposed the contract because of its limited gains for veteran workers, said she believed the union could have won more at the bargaining table had it been willing to escalate further.Still, she did not blame Mr. Fain for the outcome. “He walked into a burning building,” Ms. Newman said. “I give him a lot of kudos for having the courage to go against the corporations.”Jim Tankersley More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Marc Allen will step down as Boeing (NYSE:BA)’s chief strategy officer at the end of the year and leave the company in 2024 as the U.S. planemaker pares down its strategy arm.In a letter to employees on Thursday, Boeing CEO David Calhoun said the U.S. planemaker will not fill the chief strategy officer role going forward. Boeing will shrink its strategy and corporate development organization and instead have “strategy teams directly joining the business units they support,” Calhoun said.”These teams provide critical counsel and insights – and they can have the most impact when working alongside those designing, building and sustaining our products.”Chief Financial Officer Brian West and Mike D’Ambrose, the company’s top human resources official, will create a realignment plan for the strategy unit over the next month, Calhoun said.Allen, who became Boeing’s top strategy official in 2020, intends to vacate the job at the end of the year and leave the company in the spring after serving in an advisory role.Allen spearheaded efforts to acquire the planemaking arm of Brazil’s Embraer, which was called off during the market turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He also helped oversee a marathon trade spat with Airbus over subsidies.Previous roles also included running Boeing’s China unit.Allen “has provided exceptional leadership of this organization over the last three years, and we are confident now is the time for the transition,” Calhoun said. More

The financial mechanism will allow environmental initiatives to receive monetary resources more than once, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the fund will be managed by a trust that will oversee greater efficiency in distributing resources.Colombia is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries where swathes of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) rainforest and other jungles are deforested each year. Scientists say protecting rainforests like the Amazon is vital to curbing the effects of climate change. “We hope at the end of this year to be able to deliver the first resources from this fund, a fundamental tool for environmental management and change throughout the country,” Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said in the statement.The statement did not say how much money will be used to start the fund, which will manage close to 4 trillion pesos ($981 million) by 2026.Financing for the fund will come from five sources, the statement said, including a carbon tax, the government’s budget, and donations, among others. “We hope to mobilize resources and actors to achieve interventions that respond to the needs of ecosystems and communities (in rural areas) and generate sustainable changes over time,” Muhamad said. ($1 = 4,077.44 Colombian pesos) More

Goldman Sachs has pegged the probability of an initial reduction from the current 5.25% to 5% in August at 30%, with a further cut to 4.75% by the end of 2023. Additionally, they see a 15% chance of a full recession triggering a rate cut in the first quarter of the year. These predictions contrast market expectations, which anticipate the first rate cut could occur in June, following a significant drop in inflation from 6.7% in September to 4.6% in October.Despite this easing of inflation, MPC member Greene has voiced concerns about the UK achieving the Bank’s 2% inflation target, indicating ongoing challenges. Both Governor Andrew Bailey and Greene have expressed that it is too soon to consider rate reductions, citing persistent inflation pressures, high wage growth, and low productivity growth as key issues.The influence of energy price caps on inflation has also been highlighted, alongside what is perceived as aggressive market pricing for cuts on a global scale. The debate underscores the delicate balance policymakers must strike between fostering economic growth and containing inflation during uncertain times.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

The proposed amendment to Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act stipulates that from April, quarterly reports for the first and third quarters of the fiscal year will be eliminated, with their content summarised in financial statements, Nikkei Asia said.The bill, which was approved by Japan’s upper house Financial Affairs Committee on Thursday, would require listed companies to submit semiannual reports, which has been a requirement for nonlisted companies for some time, according to the Nikkei Asia report. It aims to address the current process of financial document preparation by businesses where the content of quarterly reports overlaps with financial statements. Japanese lawmakers are also debating a business bill that would shorten the time it takes for startup companies to go public, the magazine said. More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get it sent straight to your inbox every weekday morningGood morning. Today we start with oil prices, which have slumped to their lowest levels since early July. The slide puts pressure on the Opec+ group of major oil producers to consider extending and deepening production cuts when they meet in 10 days in Vienna. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, fell 5.2 per cent earlier today — one of the biggest daily declines this year — taking prices just under $77 a barrel, below the $80 level at which government budgets start to strain for Saudi Arabia and Russia. The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell 5.5 per cent to $72.48 a barrel. The drop in prices builds pressure on Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of Opec+ ahead of their next meeting, when they will consider how to respond to weakening oil prices and concerns that a potential stumble in global growth could hold back demand. Our reporters spoke with analysts about their predictions for the oil market. Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today and this weekend:Indian elections: Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh hold state assembly elections today.US-Asia ties: Joe Biden on Saturday will host leaders from Apec nations in San Francisco. Argentina: The nation will hold its final presidential run-off election. Voters have a stark choice between Peronist Sergio Massa and libertarian outsider Javier Milei. Five more top stories1. Alibaba has ditched plans to spin off its cloud business and paused the listing of its supermarket unit after reporting lacklustre earnings yesterday. Investors had initially cheered the tech group’s plan to split its empire into six units, but appetite for the restructuring has since waned. Here’s a look at what spurred the change.2. US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed to resume military communications. At a press conference following the San Francisco meeting, which was designed to stabilise the nations’ relationship, Biden said the countries had reached a series of agreements. Get the details of the discussions.3. Israel is planning military operations in southern Gaza and has asked residents of some neighbourhoods to evacuate their homes, according to leaflets dropped into the city of Khan Younis. The notices signalled a potential widening of Israel’s invasion. Read the latest on the operation and some of the army’s discoveries.4. The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on three United Arab Emirates-based shipowners it accused of exporting Russian crude priced above the $60 per barrel limit. The move comes as Washington tries to increase enforcement of the price cap set by the G7 and Australia following evidence that it was being widely circumvented.5. Global investment banks have criticised South Korean regulators’ ban on short selling, accusing authorities of bowing to the demands of local retail investors ahead of parliamentary elections in April. A representative of one of the banks said regulators had created a “bogeyman” and a “phantom farce”. How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz. For more, tune into the FT’s Biz Quiz airing live on Saturday. A recording will be available following the event. The Big Read© FT montage; DreamstimeThe London Stock Exchange Group owns a 300-year-old exchange but makes under 4 per cent of its revenues from listing and trading cash equities. Instead, data and analytics now account for about two-thirds of revenues. The company has gone further than many of its rivals, but across the world stock exchanges are moving away from their traditional businesses and into areas including data, digital assets and mortgages.We’re also reading . . . Chart of the dayWhere did the currency wars go? Exchange rates were barely, if at all, on the agenda of Joe Biden and Xi Jinping’s meeting yesterday. While this is a lull, the factors that created battles over currency misalignments have not gone away, writes Alan Beattie. China in particular is threatening to return to the mercantilist behaviour that started protracted tensions 20 years ago. Take a break from the newsFT senior science writer Clive Cookson selects his favourite books of the year. On his list are titles that will take you on a cosmic mission, explore brain’s impressive balancing act, and impart scientific speculation about white holes. Additional contributions from Gordon Smith and Gary JonesRecommended newsletters for youWorking It — Everything you need to get ahead at work, in your inbox every Wednesday. Sign up hereOne Must-Read — The one piece of journalism you should read today. Sign up here More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever, financial markets columnist.Asian markets are poised to round off a positive week on a more subdued note on Friday, with concerns over world growth countering any optimism from another slide in U.S. Treasury yields and global oil prices.The Asia Pacific economic data and policy calendar on Friday is very light, with only Malaysian third quarter GDP and current account reports scheduled for release.Malaysia’s economy probably grew at a 3.0% annual rate in the July-September period, according to a Reuters poll, slightly faster than 2.9% in Q2. Ahead of the data the ringgit is trading around 4.6850 per dollar, near last month’s 25-year low of 4.79 per dollar.Anyone hoping for market-moving news from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco will have been disappointed. The gathering of APEC leaders has been cordial and cooperative but, viewed through an economic and market lens, lacking any real substance.The same largely applies to the much-anticipated summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.Investor worries over the health of China’s economy refuse to dissipate. The latest data show house prices fell for a fourth month in October and could fall further, and weak Japanese exports were in part due to soft demand from China.Bucking the wider regional trend, China’s CSI 300 blue chip index is poised for a slender decline, its first in four weeks.The MSCI Asia ex-Japan equity index is up 3.5% so far this week, its best week since July and third best of the year, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 is set for its third weekly rise in a row, its best run since June.The backdrop to Friday’s market activity in Asia is further evidence that disinflationary pressures are spreading in the U.S. economy and beyond.Data on Thursday showed that U.S. jobless claims rose to a three-month high and industrial production fell at its fastest rate this year. Capacity utilization slid to a two-year low, and global oil prices fell sharply again too – Brent crude futures hit a four-month low and are now down 16% year-on-year.Fading inflation puts downward pressure on interest rates and market borrowing costs, and U.S. Treasury yields fell as much as 10 basis points across the curve.All else equal, this weakens the dollar and supports risk assets like equities and emerging assets. But Wall Street failed to bounce and the dollar stood its ground on Thursday, hinting at a more defensive and cautious stance from many investors.If this filters through to Asia on Friday, the week may peter out with a whimper rather than a bang.Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Friday:- Malaysia current account (Q3)- Malaysia GDP (Q3)- Fed’s Barr, Collins, Daly and Goolsbee speak (By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Josie Kao) More

Las aerolíneas están comenzando a ofrecer precios de rebaja, una señal de que tienen problemas para llenar los aviones.En fechas recientes en Estados Unidos, las tarifas aéreas a muchos destinos populares han caído a su nivel más bajo en meses; incluso los viajes durante la temporada festiva son mucho más baratos que el año pasado. Esto les ha dado un respiro a los consumidores, tras meses de frustración por los elevados precios de todo tipo de bienes y servicios.La abundancia de buenas ofertas hace pensar que quizá la vigorosa recuperación de la industria aérea tras la pandemia por fin va bajando el ritmo, ya que la oferta de boletos se empareja con la demanda, que parece relativamente firme, e incluso la supera en algunas rutas.Tengamos en cuenta las tarifas que consiguió hace poco Denise Diorio, maestra jubilada de Tampa, Florida. Gastó menos de 40 dólares en un boleto de ida y vuelta a Chicago y solo pagó 230 dólares por un viaje redondo de Nueva York a París, el cual planea hacer este mes.“Les he venido diciendo a todos mis amigos que si quieren ir a alguna parte, deben comprar sus boletos ahora”, comentó.Las gangas que encontró quizá sean excepcionales, pero Diorio está en lo correcto cuando asegura que hay muchas ofertas.Este mismo mes, el precio promedio de un vuelo nacional cerca del Día de Acción de Gracias estaba casi un 9 por ciento por debajo del nivel del año pasado. En cuanto a los vuelos cerca de la Navidad, eran aproximadamente un 18 por ciento más baratos, según la aplicación de reservaciones y rastreo de precios Hopper. Kayak, el motor de búsqueda de viajes, analizó un rango más amplio de fechas cerca de las fiestas y descubrió que los precios de los vuelos nacionales eran alrededor de un 18 por ciento más bajos por la fecha del Día de Acción de Gracias y un 23 por ciento por Navidad.“En muchos casos, observamos algunas de las tarifas más bajas desde que se reanudaron los viajes tras los recortes de 2020, en realidad”, afirmó Kyle Potter, editor ejecutivo del blog de viajes y servicio de alerta de ofertas Thrifty Traveler.El precio de los boletos para vuelos dentro de Estados Unidos bajó durante el verano, aseveró Potter, y en épocas recientes es más común encontrar ofertas para viajes internacionales, en particular a Europa.Las aerolíneas bajan sus tarifas cuando quieren tentar a más personas a reservar boletos porque la demanda es baja o la competencia es más fuerte. Sin duda, la competencia se ha intensificado en algunas rutas, pero los expertos en viajes indican que no hay certeza de que la demanda vaya en declive.Se espera que el Día de Acción de Gracias de este año establezca una cifra récord para los viajes aéreos, con predicciones de casi 30 millones de pasajeros, según Airlines for America, un grupo de la industria. Esta cifra sería un 9 por ciento más alta que la del año pasado y estaría un 6 por ciento por encima de la de 2019, antes de la pandemia.Pero algunas aerolíneas afirman que la demanda va en descenso en los periodos que no son de festividades o temporada alta. Además, algunos aeropuertos han manejado tal número de vuelos que las compañías de transporte se han visto obligadas a reducir las tarifas para llenar los aviones.Ese no había sido un problema durante la mayor parte del periodo de recuperación tras la pandemia. El clima y otras perturbaciones limitaron la oferta de vuelos el año pasado y en 2021, al igual que la escasez de pilotos capacitados, repuestos y aviones, entre otros factores. Esas condiciones provocaron un alza en el precio de los boletos, mantuvieron llenos los aviones y ayudaron a las aerolíneas a obtener excelentes ganancias.“La industria de la aviación nunca había registrado el tipo de márgenes de ganancias y rendimiento sobre capital visto en los últimos 2 años y medio”, señaló John Grant, principal analista de la empresa consultora y de datos de aviación OAG. “Casi estamos de nuevo en una industria más normal”.Para las principales aerolíneas estadounidenses continúan los buenos tiempos, impulsados en particular por una gran demanda de vuelos internacionales. Pero las compañías más pequeñas y de bajo costo han comenzado a sufrir. Varias revelaron resultados financieros decepcionantes para el trimestre concluido en septiembre. Los ejecutivos de esas aerolíneas han dicho que la demanda va en descenso, las tarifas han caído y los costos se han mantenido elevados. También señalan que el mal clima y la escasez de controladores de tráfico aéreo les han complicado la operación aérea.Por ejemplo, JetBlue Airways perdió 153 millones de dólares en el tercer trimestre, en contraste con las ganancias de 57 millones de dólares registradas en el mismo periodo el año pasado. La empresa indicó hace poco que planea cambiar algunos vuelos de mercados abarrotados, como Nueva York, a otros en los que espera un mejor desempeño, como el Caribe. Las compañías de transporte económicas Spirit Airlines y Frontier Airlines les informaron hace poco a los inversionistas que buscaban recortar decenas de millones de dólares en costos.La competencia ha sido aguerrida en algunos mercados importantes, lo que ha impulsado a la baja las tarifas y las utilidades.En Denver, donde se encuentran las oficinas generales de Frontier, este verano hubo un 14 por ciento más asientos disponibles que en el verano de 2019, según la proveedora de datos de aviación Cirium. Miami y Orlando, Florida, dos destinos populares a los que vuelan muchas empresas, experimentaron aumentos en capacidad todavía mayores.No obstante, mientras que las aerolíneas añadieron vuelos en mercados populares en busca de captar pasajeros, en aeropuertos de otras ciudades, como Los Ángeles, un centro de actividades de muchas aerolíneas importantes, se observaron reducciones considerables en la capacidad con respecto al verano de 2019.“Es evidente que existe una enorme correlación entre las aerolíneas que funcionan bien y aquellas que tienen dificultades, en términos de sus márgenes, cuando comparamos dónde están sus concentraciones”, señaló el mes pasado Barry Biffle, director ejecutivo de Frontier, durante una teleconferencia para presentar los resultados de la aerolínea correspondientes al tercer trimestre.En cuanto a las rutas internacionales, los analistas no saben con tanta certeza por qué las tarifas van a la baja ni si se mantendrán así. Gangas como las que consiguió Diorio para su viaje a París podrían ser señal de que las aerolíneas más grandes pronto enfrentarán presiones financieras o sencillamente que la industria va regresando a una normalidad prepandémica.“Por lo regular, la demanda de viajes a Europa baja durante el invierno”, explicó Steve Hafner, director ejecutivo de Kayak. “Así que me parece que eso refleja las tendencias normales”.Pero la demanda de viajes internacionales podría enfrentar obstáculos, en parte debido a las guerras de Medio Oriente y Ucrania. Los analistas también advierten que muchos consumidores quizá estén menos dispuestos a derrochar dinero en viajes o tengan menos posibilidades de hacerlo ahora que en los dos años pasados, cuando contaban con el dinero que habían ahorrado durante la pandemia. Incluso si la demanda se mantiene firme, las aerolíneas corren el riesgo de ofrecer demasiados asientos en rutas populares al extranjero.Cualquiera que sea la causa de la reciente caída de las tarifas, las ofertas son un bienvenido alivio para los viajeros después de sufrir años de precios altos, dijo Potter.“En cualquier caso, la receta para vuelos baratos está ahí”, afirmó. “Si se trata solo de un pequeño exceso de capacidad, es una victoria para los consumidores. Si la demanda de viajes está cayendo, en cierto modo es una ganancia aún mayor para las personas que nunca van a renunciar a viajar”.Niraj Chokshi escribe sobre la aviación, los ferrocarriles y otras industrias del transporte. Más de Niraj Chokshi More