Economics

Longshoremen’s union says wage demands must be met or members will strike on Tuesday for first time since 1977

Ten of the busiest ports in North America are at risk of shutdown next week, as a leading union warns that 45,000 workers stand ready to walk off the job if industry operators fail to make key concessions.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has accused the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents 40 ocean carrier and terminal operators, of making “insulting offers” to staff demanding higher pay and commitments on automation.

Workers are slated to strike on Tuesday if a new agreement is not reached, hitting 36 ports along the east and Gulf coasts of the US in what would be the first work stoppage since 1977.

JP Morgan analysts have estimated a strike could cost the US economy $5bn per day. A one-day strike backlog could take an estimated four to six days to clear, according to analysts at Sea-Intelligence, a shipping advisory firm.

The US has filed a lawsuit against Visa, accusing the financial giant of illegally stifling competition to maintain a monopoly over the debit card market.

It said Visa had punished companies that wanted to use alternative payment networks and paid off potential competitors to keep its hold over the market. 

The Department of Justice said the moves had slowed innovation and led to significant additional fees for American consumers and businesses.

Boeing said Monday it made a “best and final offer” to striking machinists that includes bigger raises and larger bonuses, but the workers’ union said the proposal isn’t good enough and there won’t be a ratification vote before Boeing’s deadline at the end of the week.

The union complained that Boeing publicized its latest offer to 33,000 striking workers without first bargaining with union negotiators.

“Boeing does not get to decide when or if you vote,” leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district 751 told members Monday night. “The company has refused to meet for further discussion; therefore, we will not be voting” on Friday, as Boeing insisted.

Attention, Kmart shoppers, the end is near!

The erstwhile retail giant renowned for its Blue Light Specials — featuring a flashing blue orb affixed to a pole enticing shoppers to a flash sale — is shuttering its last full-scale store in mainland United States.

The store, located in swank Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island, is slated to close Oct. 20, according to Denise Rivera, an employee who answered the phone at the store late Monday. The manager wasn't available, she said.

That will leave only a small Kmart store in Miami. It has a handful of stores in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Wall Street romped to records Thursday as a delayed jubilation swept markets worldwide following the Federal Reserve’s big cut to interest rates.

The strike at Boeing by 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists union, which reaches its seventh day today, has already cost the company and workers $572 million, according to an estimate from Anderson Economic Group.

And the pace of losses will climb rapidly if there’s no settlement, as soon as the second week of the strike, said Patrick Anderson, the founder and president of the Michigan research firm, which has experience estimating the cost of economic disruptions like strikes.

A new report shows minimum wage increases have had little effect on the number of jobs in Maryland and nationwide.

While the rhetoric around increasing the minimum wage often comes with the caution it will reduce low-wage employment, a new review of decades of research showed most studies found no job losses after the state or local minimum wage is raised.

Ben Zipperer, senior economist for the Economic Policy Institute and the review's co-author, said raising the minimum wage has unquestionably benefited workers.

I was expecting a conservative quarter point reduction, but it seems like the Fed is feeling bullish about inflation and concerned with the labor market, which has cooled much faster than was previously predicted.

What do you think? Will this move come with the positive effects while keeping inflation below 3%?

US brand Tupperware has filed for bankruptcy as it struggles to survive in the face of sliding sales.

The food storage container firm said it will ask for court permission to start a sale of the business and that it aimed to continue operating.

The 78-year-old firm has become so synonymous with food storage that many people use its name when referring to any old plastic container.

Despite attempts to freshen up its products in recent years and reposition itself to a younger audience, it has failed to stand out from competitors.

Boeing is freezing recruitment and drawing up plans to furlough “many” employees as the aerospace giant scrambles to curb spending after tens of thousands of its workers went out on strike.

Warning that the industrial action “jeopardizes our recovery in a significant way”, the US planemaker said it would pause most employee travel and suspend non-essential capital expenditures.

About 33,000 Boeing workers walked off the job early on Friday after voting overwhelmingly to strike for higher pay. The company’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg had pleaded with workers not to go on strike – the first since 2008 – before the vote.

• More than 30,000 Boeing workers, members of the company's biggest unionized group, were set to strike Friday after staff rejected a new labor contract and approved a strike with a 96% vote.
• The work stoppage will halt production of most of the company's aircraft, including its best-selling 737 Max.
• The strike is another costly blow to the company trying to increase output and improve its reputation.

Price growth continued to soften in the US last month, falling to its lowest level since February 2021 as the Federal Reserve prepares to cut interest rates for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

As inflation continues to fade, the consumer price index rose at an annual rate of 2.5% in August – down from 2.9% in July, and below the 2.6% expected by economists.

On a month-to-month basis, the index rose 0.2% last month, in line with its rate of growth during July.

• Europe’s top court on Tuesday ruled against Apple in the tech giant’s 10-year court battle over its tax affairs in Ireland. 
• The case stems back to 2016 when the European Commission ordered Ireland to recover up to 13 billion euros ($14.4 billion) in back taxes from Apple.
• The Commission said at the time Apple had received “illegal” tax benefits from Ireland over the course of two decades.

• Big Lots filed for bankruptcy protection, citing stubborn inflation, high interest rates and a slowdown in consumer spending on home goods such as furniture and decor.
• Private equity firm Nexus Capital Management has agreed to buy Big Lots for $760 million, consisting of $2.5 million in cash plus its remaining debt.
• The home goods sector has been under pressure over the last two years after demand surged during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Boeing is offering its staff a 25% pay rise over four years in a bid to avoid a strike that could potentially shut down its assembly lines as early as Friday.

Union leaders representing more than 30,000 employees have urged the workers to support the proposal, describing it as the best contract they had ever negotiated.

If approved, the agreement would be an important achievement for Boeing's new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, who faces pressure to fix the company's quality and reputational issues.

The Japanese owner of convenience store chain 7-Eleven has rejected a $38bn (£29.2bn) takeover bid from Canadian rival Alimentation Couche-Tard.

In a letter addressed to the prospective buyer, Seven & i Holdings said the Circle K owner's offer "grossly" undervalued the company and was fraught with regulatory risk.

Dollar General shares tumbled on Thursday after the discount retailer slashed its sales and profit guidance for the full year, suggesting its lower-income customers are struggling in this economy.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sent a straightforward message to markets in a key speech on Friday, saying "the time has come" for the central bank to begin lowering interest rates.

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Both of Canada's major freight railroads have come to a full stop because of a contract dispute with their workers, an impasse that could bring significant economic harm to businesses and consumers in Canada and the U.S. if the trains don't resume running soon. 

Canadian National and CPKC railroads both locked out their employees after the deadline of 12:01 a.m. Eastern Thursday passed without new agreements with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents some 10,000 engineers, conductors and dispatchers.

• Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition ended up being the worst financing deal for banks since 2008, the WSJ said.
• The $13 billion in loans Musk took out have been stuck on banks' balance sheets.
• The loans have cut into pay for bankers and lenders' ability to finance other deals, the Journal reported.

In this video, we dive into the mismanagement that led to a collapse so severe that international agencies stopped tracking it