ЦЕНЗОРА.NET

Jeep maker Stellantis reached a tentative contract agreement with the United Auto Workers union on Saturday. 

The Stellantis deal, which still must be ratified by members, leaves only General Motors without an agreement with the union.  

Later Saturday night, the union walked out at a GM factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee, in an effort to increase pressure on the company to reach a deal. 

The Stellantis deal mirrors one reached earlier this week with Ford. The union says the contract also saves jobs at a factory in Belvidere, Illinois, that Stellantis had planned to close. 

GM said it was disappointed with the additional strike at the Spring Hill assembly and propulsion systems plant “in light of the progress we have made.” The company said in a statement that it has bargained in good faith with the union and wants to reach a deal as soon as possible. 

Spring Hill is GM’s largest manufacturing facility in North America with about 1 million square meters of building space and almost 4,000 employees. It makes the electric Cadillac Lyriq as well as the GMC Acadia and Cadillac XT5 and XT6 crossover SUVs. 

A message was left Saturday night seeking comment from the union. 

‘We have moved mountains’

UAW President Shawn Fain confirmed the Stellantis agreement in a video appearance Saturday evening and said that 43,000 members at the company still have to vote on the deal. 

About 14,000 UAW workers who were on strike at two Stellantis assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio, and several parts distribution centers across the country, were told to drop their picket signs and return to work. The agreement will end a six-week strike at the maker of Jeep and Ram vehicles. 

The pact includes 25% in general wage increases over the next 4½ years for top assembly plant workers, with 11% coming once the deal is ratified. Workers also will get cost-of-living pay that would bring the raises to a compounded 33%, with top assembly plant workers making more than $42 per hour. At Stellantis, top-scale workers now make around $31 per hour. 

Like the Ford contract, the Stellantis deal would run through April 30, 2028. 

Under the deal, the union said it saved jobs in Belvidere as well as at an engine plant in Trenton, Michigan, and a machining factory in Toledo, Ohio. 

“We’ve done the impossible. We have moved mountains. We have reopened an assembly plant that was closed,” Fain said. 

The deal includes a commitment by Stellantis to build a new midsize truck at its factory in Belvidere, Illinois, that was slated to be closed. About 1,200 workers will be hired back, plus another 1,000 workers will be added for a new electric vehicle battery plant, the union said. 

“We’re bringing back both combustion vehicles and electric vehicle jobs to Belvidere,” Fain said. 

Vice President Rich Boyer, who led the Stellantis talks, said the workforce will be doubled at the Toledo, Ohio, machining plant. The union, he said, won $19 billion worth of investment across the U.S. 

Fain said Stellantis had proposed cutting 5,000 U.S. jobs, but the union’s strike changed that to adding 5,000 jobs by the end of the contract. 

In a statement, the UAW said the Stellantis agreement has gains worth more than four times the improvements in the 2019 contract with the UAW. Through April of 2028, a top-scale assembly plant worker’s base wage will increase more than all the increases in the past 22 years. 

Starting wages for new hires will rise 67% including cost-of-living adjustments to more than $30 per hour, the union said. Temporary workers will get raises of more than 165%, while workers at parts centers will get an immediate 76% increase if the contract is ratified. 

Like the Ford agreement, it will take just three years for new workers to get to the top of the assembly pay scale, the union said. 

The union also won the right to strike over plant closures at Stellantis, and it can strike if the company doesn’t meet product and investment commitments, Fain said. 

Workers expected to OK deal

Bruce Baumhower, president of the local union at a large Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, that has been on strike since September, said he expects workers will vote to approve the deal because of the pay raises above 30% and a large raise immediately. 

The union began targeted strikes against all three automakers on Sept. 15 after its contracts with the companies expired. At the peak, about 46,000 workers were on strike against all three companies, about one-third of the union’s 146,000 members at the Detroit three. 

With the Ford deal, which established the pattern for the other two companies, workers with pensions will see small increases when they retire, and those hired after 2007 with 401(k) plans will get large increases. For the first time, the union will have the right to go on strike over company plans to close factories. Temporary workers also will get large raises, and Ford agreed to shorten to three years the time it takes for new hires to reach the top of the pay scale. 

Other union leaders who followed more aggressive bargaining strategies in recent months have also secured pay hikes and other benefits for their members. Last month, the union representing Hollywood writers called off a nearly five-month strike after scoring some wins in compensation, length of employment, and other areas. 

Outside the Sterling Heights plant, some workers said they looked forward to a ratification vote and going back to work. 

“The tentative agreement is excellent,” said Anthony Collier, 54, of Sterling Heights, Michigan. “We hear that it’s going to be parity, at least, with Ford, so we believe a lot of people are looking forward to signing. Most of us had to dip into savings, get loans. Everybody knows the economy went up on all of us, so it’s a little tight to be out on strike pay.” 
…

Ugandan economists and officials expressed confidence in the country’s economy and urged investors to ignore a U.S. government advisory about risks they may face if they conduct business there.

The advisory, in the U.S. 2023 Investment Climate Statements, warned of the financial and reputational risks posed by endemic corruption in Uganda.

The statement also noted Uganda’s enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in May, a move condemned by LGBTQ+ advocates worldwide.

Morrison Rwakakamba, chairperson of the Uganda Investment Authority, a government arm mandated with promoting investment in the country, told VOA that organizations such as the Oxford University Center of African Economies have ranked Uganda as one of the least risky economies on the continent.

The African Development Bank’s 2023 report also ranked Uganda among the top investment destinations in East Africa.

According to the African Development Bank, Uganda’s gross domestic product is projected to grow 6.5% in 2023 and 6.7% in 2024, assuming any global growth slowdown will be short lived.

Rwakakamba said current investors are rational and know they will continue to make money in Uganda.

“Investors follow money. Investors don’t follow geopolitics,” he said. “They don’t follow cultural wars that seem to be what is embedded in that advisory. … We even also continue to encourage our American investors that there is money to be made in Africa. There’s money to be made in Uganda because of the market, because of the return on investment. We are not worried about these advisories.”

The Uganda Investment Authority said the country has seen exponential growth in direct foreign investment over the past four years from investors in United Arab Emirates, China, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands, among others.

However, Corti Paul Lakuma, a senior research fellow and head of the macroeconomics department at the Economic Policy Research Centre in Kampala, said the advisory is a disadvantage for Uganda because the country still wants to attract investors.

Despite investments from China, India and Europe, Lakuma said, Uganda cannot disregard the fact that the United States is still the biggest social and public investor in the sectors of health and education.

“Those other countries, yes, they are good and dependable, but their kind of investments are different from the investments America makes,” Lakuma said. “America makes investments with long-term repayment period and return period. Not many countries are willing to take that risk.”

Rwakakamba argued that even though there is corruption in Uganda, the East African country has set up online mechanisms that enable direct contact between potential investors and Ugandan officials, in an effort to cut out middlemen who demand bribes.

Regarding the Anti-Homosexuality Act, Uganda has experienced a political backlash for what has been described as the harshest law against the LGBTQ+ community in the world.

Lakuma said Uganda may need to reconsider the law.

“The world is becoming very sensitive [to] issues of diversity, inclusivity,” he said. “I think it demanded for some sensitivity from our lawmakers. We don’t live in a vacuum, even though we want to keep our cultures and morals. But also, you must observe what is the changing world order.”

In August, the World Bank said the Anti-Homosexuality Act contradicted its values. The bank said it would halt new loans to Uganda until it could test measures to prevent discrimination in the Ugandan projects it finances.
…

The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in nearly two years in the third quarter as higher wages from a tight labor market helped to power consumer spending, again defying dire warnings of a recession that have lingered since 2022.

Gross domestic product increased at a 4.9% annualized rate last quarter, the fastest since the fourth quarter of 2021, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its advance estimate of third-quarter GDP growth. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP rising at a 4.3% rate.

Estimates ranged from as low as a 2.5% rate to as high as a 6.0% pace, a wide margin reflecting that some of the input data, including September durable goods orders, goods trade deficit, wholesale and retail inventory numbers were published at the same time as the GDP report.

The economy grew at a 2.1% pace in the April-June quarter and is expanding at a pace well above what Fed officials regard as the non-inflationary growth rate of around 1.8%.

While the robust growth pace notched last quarter is unlikely sustainable, it was testament to the economy’s resilience despite aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. Growth could slow in the fourth quarter because of the United Auto Workers strikes and the resumption student loan repayments by millions of Americans.

Most economists have revised their forecasts and now believe that the Fed can to engineer a “soft-landing” for the economy, pointing to strength in worker productivity and moderation in unit labor costs growth in the second quarter, which they expected carried through into the July-September period.  

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, was the main driver.

A strong labor market is providing underlying support to spending. Though wage growth has slowed, it is rising a bit faster than inflation, lifting households’ purchasing power.  

Labor market resilience was highlighted by a separate report from the Labor Department on Thursday, showing the number of people filing new claims for state unemployment benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 210,000 during the week ending Oct. 21 from 200,000 in the prior week.

The GDP data likely has no impact on near-term monetary policy amid a surge in U.S. Treasury yields and stock market selloff, which have tightened financial conditions.  

Financial markets expect the Fed to keep interest rates unchanged at its Oct. 31-Nov. 1 policy meeting, according to CME Group’s FedWatch. Since March, the U.S. central bank has raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by 525 basis points to the current 5.25% to 5.50% range. 
…

Zimbabwe’s vice president on Wednesday said the country has lost more than $150 billion due to sanctions imposed by the European Union and countries such as the United States following reports of election rigging and human rights abuses in the early 2000s.

Speaking to protesters rallying against the sanctions, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said the measures were also hurting the entire southern Africa region.

He called the sanctions an “albatross” around Zimbabwe’s neck, as they include financial restrictions that isolate Zimbabwe from global access to capital.

“Since 2001, we estimate that Zimbabwe has lost or missed over $150 billion through frozen assets, trade embargos, export and investment restrictions from potential bilateral support, development loans, IMF and World Bank balance of payments support and commercial loans,” Chiwenga said, calling the sanctions “heinous and illegal.”

Stevenson Dhlamini, an economics professor at National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe, said the figure of $150 billion is consistent with what the Zimbabwean government has been saying over the years.

“The cumulative effect of the sanctions by the U.S., EU and the U.K. do have a cumulative impact that could be to that level,” Dhlamini said.

Not everyone agrees. 

Prosper Chitambara, senior economist with the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, said multiple factors have affected the country’s economy, not just the sanctions.

“How do you then separate the effects of sanctions, say, from the effects of corruption, or from the effects of external shocks or climate-induced shocks?” he said, “Coming up with a number is a very difficult and tedious exercise to do.”

After the protest, which attracted mainly civil servants and ruling Zanu PF supporters, Chiwenga vowed that Zimbabwe’s economy will prevail over the sanctions.

“Sanctions are really hurting Zimbabweans,” he said. “By now, we could have gone far in terms of our economic growth. Our sin is that we took land [from white commercial farmers] and gave it to our people. Nothing else. The rest they are talking about is nonsense.

“But we think outside the box,” he said. “So, sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe will prosper.”

Hopes of lifting the sanctions were dashed after many observer missions to Zimbabwe’s August 23 general election, including the Southern African Development Community, said the polls were not credible.
…