Boeing has expressed its willingness to return to negotiations with its workers to agree on a pay deal after employees voted to go on strike. The rejection of a tentative agreement by the members has prompted Boeing to state that they are committed to resetting their relationship with employees and the union and are ready to reach a new agreement at the bargaining table.
In other news, Russia’s central bank has raised interest rates to 19% due to inflationary pressures, with the aim of bringing inflation down to its 4% target by 2024. While in the UK, public inflation expectations have fallen to a three-year low, with almost half of respondents believing that interest rates should go down.
On the corporate front, a proposed merger between Vodafone and Three UK has raised concerns from the Competition and Markets Authority over potential negative impacts on customers, leading to a substantial lessening of competition. Meanwhile, PwC’s auditing unit in mainland China has been fined and banned for six months over its auditing of Evergrande, with financial penalties totaling around £47m.
Boeing workers have begun picketing outside the company’s factory in Washington as the strike begins, impacting the production of some planes. The strike, the first in 16 years, puts pressure on Boeing to offer more generous terms and could potentially lead to delays in the company’s recovery. Gold prices have also reached a new record high, driven by optimism about a potential interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve next week.
Source
Photo credit www.theguardian.com