Twoafros

The article:

Boeing’s roughly 33,000 factory workers on the West Coast of the United States have voted overwhelmingly to strike in the latest blow for the beleaguered aircraft giant.

Machinists at the company’s factories in Seattle and Portland, Oregon on Thursday voted to walk off the job from midnight after rejecting management’s latest offer for better pay and conditions.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said that 94.6 percent of its members voted to reject the contract and 96 percent backed a strike.

Boeing’s offer would have raised pay by 25 percent over four years, reduced workers’ share of healthcare costs and increased the company’s retirement contributions.

The aircraft maker’s offer also included a commitment to build its next aircraft at its facilities in greater Seattle after the company angered union members by moving production of the 787 Dreamliner to a non-unionised plant in South Carolina.

Workers had demanded a 40 percent wage rise, the restoration of a pension scheme that was axed a decade ago, and a stronger guarantee that future production would not be moved out of the Seattle region.

Jon Holden, IAM’s lead negotiator in the contract talks, said workers had spoken “loud and clear”.

“This is about respect, this is about addressing the past, and this is about fighting for our future,” Holden said.

“We strike at midnight.”

The strike, the first by Boeing workers since 2008, puts a halt to production of the best-selling 737 MAX and other aircraft as the company grapples with output delays, heavy financial losses and intense scrutiny of its safety record.

It also comes just weeks after new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg took the helm of the company with a pledge to “reset” the company’s relations with the union.

Ortberg had on Wednesday urged workers to vote against a strike, warning it would “put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together”.

Boeing did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Adam Smith, a Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives representing Washington State, urged the two sides to return to the negotiating table.

“Across corporate America, so much of the wealth has wound up in the hands of so few people,” Smith said in a statement.

“Large corporations have increasingly prioritised their own profits and shareholders at the expense of workers. It is crucial that Boeing behaves as a responsible steward for its employees, so that every employee at their company is respected with fair wages and working conditions.”

The article:

Boeing’s roughly 33,000 factory workers on the West Coast of the United States have voted overwhelmingly to strike in the latest blow for the beleaguered aircraft giant.

Machinists at the company’s factories in Seattle and Portland, Oregon on Thursday voted to walk off the job from midnight after rejecting management’s latest offer for better pay and conditions.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said that 94.6 percent of its members voted to reject the contract and 96 percent backed a strike.

Boeing’s offer would have raised pay by 25 percent over four years, reduced workers’ share of healthcare costs and increased the company’s retirement contributions.

The aircraft maker’s offer also included a commitment to build its next aircraft at its facilities in greater Seattle after the company angered union members by moving production of the 787 Dreamliner to a non-unionised plant in South Carolina.

Workers had demanded a 40 percent wage rise, the restoration of a pension scheme that was axed a decade ago, and a stronger guarantee that future production would not be moved out of the Seattle region.

Jon Holden, IAM’s lead negotiator in the contract talks, said workers had spoken “loud and clear”.

“This is about respect, this is about addressing the past, and this is about fighting for our future,” Holden said.

“We strike at midnight.”

The strike, the first by Boeing workers since 2008, puts a halt to production of the best-selling 737 MAX and other aircraft as the company grapples with output delays, heavy financial losses and intense scrutiny of its safety record.

It also comes just weeks after new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg took the helm of the company with a pledge to “reset” the company’s relations with the union.

Ortberg had on Wednesday urged workers to vote against a strike, warning it would “put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together”.

Boeing did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Adam Smith, a Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives representing Washington State, urged the two sides to return to the negotiating table.

“Across corporate America, so much of the wealth has wound up in the hands of so few people,” Smith said in a statement.

“Large corporations have increasingly prioritised their own profits and shareholders at the expense of workers. It is crucial that Boeing behaves as a responsible steward for its employees, so that every employee at their company is respected with fair wages and working conditions.”

Legendary actor James Earl Jones dies at 93.

Rest in peace to someone who's work filled many lives with joy!

From the article:

*A UN Development Program (UNDP) report published this week indicates subjective credit rating agencies have had a significant effect on Africa’s access to finance, with the continent shelling out upwards of USD 74 billion in additional interest payments as a result of the skewed ratings.

The report reveals that African countries pay an average interest rate of 11.6 percent on loans, almost four times what creditors charge borrowers such as the US.

The report was presented during a ‘Development Context for Enhanced Credit Ratings in Africa’ workshop organized in Addis Ababa this week by the UNDP and AfriCatalyst, a Dakar-based think tank.

The UNDP has launched an initiative to respond to the rising cost of borrowing in global capital markets and the increasing difficulty of financing development in Africa.

Over the last decade alone, east African countries’ interest payment measured as percentage of gross national income (GNI), has surged to 80 percent, according to the agency.

This is partly due to subjective biases at international credit rating agencies, of which there are three who collectively rate over 90 percent of the world’s varying issuances.

Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P are the only international credit rating agencies that have offices in Africa, all of them in South Africa.*

Cartoon by Gary Larson

ADDIS ABABA, July 29 (Reuters) - Ethiopia’s central bank floated the country’s birr currency on Monday, a move it hopes will secure International Monetary Fund (IMF) support and make progress on a long-delayed debt restructuring.

The birr’s value against the U.S. dollar slumped by 30% to 74.73 per dollar, the country’s biggest lender, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia said. The currency had been trading at 57.48 birr to the dollar on Friday.

ADDIS ABABA, July 29 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's central bank floated the country's birr currency on Monday, a move it hopes will secure International Monetary Fund (IMF) support and make progress on a long-delayed debt restructuring.

The birr's value against the U.S. dollar slumped by 30% to 74.73 per dollar, the country's biggest lender, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia said. The currency had been trading at 57.48 birr to the dollar on Friday.

I'm all for higher minimum wages, unions, paid leaves and other forms of worker protection, but it seems like the most forms of worker protection focus on maintaining a division between an employer(s) who owns the business and the employee who makes money for the business but does not own it. IMO, this division is unethical and exploitative because it denies the worker the full value of their work.

Are there any political or social movements that push for policy or legislation that makes all businesses to be worker owned cooperatives?

I'm not from the UK, but I've been trying to understand more about UK politics because of the election and I've seen headlines saying the Starmer has been pushing the Labour party to the center. What does that mean in terms of policies he's said he will push? Also, now that they have won an overwhelming majority, do you think the party will actually use this opportunity to push the UK more left?

France’s left-wing and centrist parties have withdrawn hundreds of candidates from Sunday’s parliamentary elections, in a move aimed at thwarting the formation of the country’s first far-right government since World War II.

Macron’s centrists and the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) hope they can prevent such an event, with the president telling a closed-door meeting of ministers at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday that the top priority was blocking the RN from power.

That would involve supporting members of the far-left France Unbowed party (LFI) if necessary, Macron said, despite some opposition from members of his own party.

France’s left-wing and centrist parties have withdrawn hundreds of candidates from Sunday’s parliamentary elections, in a move aimed at thwarting the formation of the country’s first far-right government since World War II.

Macron’s centrists and the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) hope they can prevent such an event, with the president telling a closed-door meeting of ministers at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday that the top priority was blocking the RN from power.

That would involve supporting members of the far-left France Unbowed party (LFI) if necessary, Macron said, despite some opposition from members of his own party.