Economy

OTTAWA (Reuters) -The Canadian government moved quickly on Thursday to end an unprecedented rail stoppage, announcing it would ask the country’s industrial relations board to issue a back-to-work order that should come soon.Canada’s top two railroads, Canadian National Railway (TSX:CNR) and Canadian Pacific (NYSE:CP) Kansas City, had locked out more than 9,000 unionized workers earlier in the day, triggering a simultaneous rail stoppage that business groups said could inflict hundreds of millions of dollars in economic damage.The Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), which is independent, will now consult the companies and unions before issuing an order. CN said it would end its lockout on Thursday at 6 p.m. ET (2200 GMT). CPKC said it was preparing to restart operations in Canada and further details on timing would be provided once it received the CIRB’s order.”I assume that the trains will be running within days,” Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon told reporters.As well as requesting a back-to-work order, MacKinnon asked the board to start a process of binding arbitration between the Teamsters union and the companies, and extend the terms of the current labor agreements until new agreements have been signed.The sides blamed each other for the stoppage after multiple rounds of talks failed to yield a deal.The Teamsters union said in a statement that picket lines would remain in place while it reviewed MacKinnon’s referral and CIRB’s response. The union will consult with legal counsel to determine the next steps, it added. CN spokesperson Jonathan Abecassis told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp it could take the company a week or more to catch up on shipments.MacKinnon’s decision marked a change of mind by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which had said it wanted to see the matter settled at the bargaining table.”We gave negotiations every possible opportunity to succeed … but we have an impasse here,” MacKinnon said.”And that is why we have come to this decision today.”RELIANT ON RAILBusiness groups and companies had demanded the government act. Trudeau, in a post on X, said “collective bargaining is always the best way forward,” but added governments must act when faced with serious consequences to supply chains and the workers who depend on them.Canada is the world’s second-largest country by area and relies heavily on railways to transport a wide range of commodities and industrial goods. Its economy is heavily integrated with that of the United States, meaning a stoppage would roil North American supply chains.”We are pleased the government has responded to our calls to intervene … A prolonged stoppage would have imposed enormous costs on Canadian business,” the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, an industry group, said in a statement. The rail companies previously said they were forced into the lockouts to avoid strikes at short notice. They said they had bargained in good faith and made multiple offers with better pay and working conditions.Paul Boucher, head of the Teamsters rail union, had accused CN and CPKC of being “willing to compromise rail safety and tear families apart to earn an extra buck”.Unions typically do not want contracts decided through arbitration as it removes their leverage from withholding labor to secure better terms.The left-leaning New Democratic Party, which has traditionally received strong union support and props up Trudeau’s government, opposed the government’s decision.”Justin Trudeau has just sent a message to CN, CPKC and all big corporations – being a bad boss pays off,” party leader Jagmeet Singh said in a statement.The stoppage has crippled shipments of grain, potash and coal while also slowing the transport of petroleum products, chemicals and autos.Tens of thousands of people who depend on certain commuter rail lines into Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal were also hit by the lockouts, since all train movement on these CPKC-owned lines had halted indefinitely.The stoppage was largely rooted in scheduling, availability of labor and demands for better work-life balance, according to the union and companies. It comes after Ottawa introduced new duty and rest-period rules in 2023. More

Wonderful Nurseries, owned by Stewart and Lynda Resnick, has sued the state to overturn a labor organizing law championed by the United Farm Workers.The allegations ricocheted through the agricultural fields and into a Central Valley courthouse, where one of California’s most powerful companies and an iconic union were trading charges of deception and coercion in a fight over worker representation.Some farmworkers at Wonderful Nurseries — part of the Wonderful Company, the conglomerate behind famous brands of pomegranate juice and pistachios, as well as Fiji Water — said they had been duped into signing cards to join a union. On the other side, the United Farm Workers, the union formed in the 1960s by labor figures including Cesar Chavez, contends that the influential company, owned by the Los Angeles billionaires and powerhouse Democratic donors Stewart and Lynda Resnick, is trying to thwart the will of workers through intimidation and coercion.For months, the back and forth has played out before the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which arbitrates labor fights between workers and growers, and in a courthouse not far from Wonderful’s sprawling fields.In May, the company filed a legal challenge against the state that could overturn a 2022 law that made it easier for farmworkers to take part in unionization votes.After vetoing a previous version over procedural concerns, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the measure following public pressure from President Biden and Representative Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker. The U.F.W. heralded the bill’s enactment as a critical victory, but several big growers said that it would allow union organizers to unfairly influence the process.The law paved the way for farmworkers to vote for union representation by signing union authorization cards, a process known simply as card check. Its passage coincided with an era of greater mobilization to unionize workers during the pandemic and a willingness to press demands for better working conditions and respect from employers, said Victor Narro, project director and labor studies professor at the U.C.L.A. Labor Center.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The bill, passed with 61 votes in favor and eight votes against, outlines a new mechanism for adjusting pensions.Libertarian Milei took office in December with strict austerity measures as part of a bid to tamp out triple-digit inflation, though poverty has climbed to hit half of the Argentine population.He said that he could veto the pension reform, though the measure passed with such broad consensus that a potential veto could cause social backlash.Senator Juliana Di Tullio, of the Peronist center-left, who voted for the pension adjustment, said “55.5% of Argentines are in poverty and 17.5% are in extreme poverty. Many of them are senior citizens.”Last week, Congress struck down a presidential decree which would have multiplied the intelligence budget, arguing those funds could be used for more urgent social needs. More

The GfK Consumer Confidence Index, Britain’s longest-running gauge of economic morale among members of the public, was steady in August at -13, matching July’s 34-month high. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a reading of -12.The survey follows mostly positive data from companies since Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a landslide election victory last month. Business surveys put the economy on course for solid growth in the second half of 2024.The survey’s measure of enthusiasm for major purchases rose to its highest level since January 2022, while the outlook for personal finances also notched higher. “This more positive outlook may be due to a mortgage-friendly interest rate cut at the beginning of August, and hopes of more to come,” said Joe Staton, client strategy director at market research company GfK.The BoE cut borrowing costs from a 16-year high of 5.25% earlier this month but Governor Andrew Bailey and other top officials have signalled they might not follow that up with rapid further reductions in rates.Investors were assigning a less than 30% chance of a September rate cut on Thursday.A Reuters poll of economists published on Wednesday suggested the BoE will cut interest rates just once more this year, in November.The GfK report’s gauges of past and future economic sentiment cooled, however.The survey of 2,003 people took place between Aug. 1 and Aug. 15. More

Rail labor disruptions in Canada tend to be brief, but a prolonged stoppage could have hurt farmers, automakers and other businesses.Late Thursday, the Canadian government ordered arbitration between the railroads and the rail workers’ union, a move that will end the shutdown. Read the latest coverage here.Canada’s two main railroads shut down for several hours on Thursday after contract talks with a labor union failed to reach a deal, forcing businesses in North America to grapple with another big supply chain challenge after several years of disruptions.The sprawling networks of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City are crucial to Canada’s economy and an important conduit for exports to the United States, Mexico and other countries. Had it lasted, the stoppage would have forced companies to find other modes of transport, but for some types of cargo, like grains, there are no practical alternatives to railroads.Canadian National’s network extends into the United States, and Canadian Pacific Kansas City has operations in the United States and Mexico. The companies’ networks outside Canada are still operating because their American and Mexican workers are covered by different labor agreements.What would a shutdown mean?Canada has recent experience with rail labor disruptions. Strikes in 2015 and 2019 ended in days. The country’s federal government has the power to press the rail workers union, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, and management to accept an arbitrated settlement.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.Japanese inflation and monetary policy are under the spotlight in Asian trading on Friday, as a mood of nervous anticipation descends on world markets ahead of U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech later in the day. U.S. stocks and bonds fell and the dollar rose on Thursday, a reversal of this week’s moves that had seen the S&P 500 climb back toward its recent all-time high, the 10-year yield post its lowest close in over a year, and the dollar hit a 2024 low.The S&P 500 on Thursday came within 0.5% of revisiting last month’s record high but ended the day down 0.9%, while the Nasdaq lost 1.7%. Both were their steepest declines since the Aug. 5 volatility shock. The MSCI emerging market currency index, meanwhile, fell 0.3% on Thursday – not a particularly big move on the face of it but, remarkably, its biggest decline in four months. With the dollar, yields and U.S. recession worries all rising, emerging market assets will be under pressure on Friday.That’s the backdrop to Asia’s trading day, where the spotlight will fall on Japanese inflation figures and Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s monetary policy testimony to lawmakers.It will mark Ueda’s first public comments since the central bank last month raised interest rates by a higher-than-expected 25 basis points. That, coupled with his hawkish post-decision press conference, helped stoke volatility in Japanese markets that ended up with a sharp unwind of yen carry trades and the Nikkei 225 index’s biggest one-day fall since 1987.The Nikkei has recovered all those losses and more, closing on Thursday at a three-week high. That’s all the more impressive considering the yen has held onto to almost all its gains, and is still up more than 10% in the last six weeks.Official figures are expected to show that annual core inflation ticked up in July to 2.7% from 2.6% on June. That would put inflation above the BOJ’s 2% target for the 28th straight month, supporting BOJ officials’ view that they should continue the move away from decades of ultra-easy policy.Japan’s economy expanded by a much faster-than-expected annualized 3.1% in the second quarter. In a Reuters poll published this week, 57% of the economists surveyed think the BOJ will raise rates again by the end of this year.As well as Japanese inflation, the Asian calendar on Friday includes Singapore inflation and New Zealand retail sales data. Current market pricing suggests the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will be one of the most dovish G10 central banks, cutting rates 230 basis points by the end of next year. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to Asian markets on Friday:- Japan inflation (July)- BOJ Governor Ueda speaks- Singapore inflation (July) More

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (Reuters) -Federal Reserve policymakers on Thursday lined up in support of U.S. interest-rate cuts starting next month now that inflation is well down from its highs and the U.S. labor market is cooling, though one signaled he is in no rush to ease policy.”For me, barring any surprise in the data we’ll get between now and then, I think we need to start this process” of lowering rates, Philadephia Fed Bank President Patrick Harker said in an interview with Reuters. “I think a slow, methodical approach down is the right way to go.”Boston Fed President Susan Collins struck a similar tone, signaling her likely support for a rate cut at the U.S. central bank’s policy meeting next month. “I do think that soon it is appropriate to begin easing,” Collins said in an interview with Fox Business on the sidelines of the annual global central banker economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Inflation has eased “quite a lot” and the labor market is healthy, she said.With preservation of that health a priority, Collins said, “I think a gradual, methodical pace (of interest rate cuts) once we are in a different policy stance is likely to be appropriate.”Their view contrasts a bit with Kansas City Fed Bank President Jeff Schmid, one of the U.S. central bank’s more hawkish policymakers.”We’ve got some data sets to come in before September,” Schmid said in an interview with broadcaster CNBC, referring to the Fed’s policy meeting on Sept. 17-18. “There is some room to consider where we go from here but I frankly think we’ve got time.” Still, he added, “it bears looking harder” at the recent rise in the unemployment rate, which measured 4.3% in July “I’m going to let the data show where we lead…I would agree with several of my colleagues that you probably want to act maybe before (inflation) gets to two (percent) but that sustainability to two I think is really important.”The U.S. central bank is widely expected to begin reducing its benchmark policy rate at its upcoming meeting, with most Fed officials buoyed by encouraging inflation data and increasingly anxious about the health of the job market.The Fed targets 2% annual inflation by the personal consumption expenditures price index; by that gauge inflation was 2.5% in July. More

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