Teamsters working for Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch on Tuesday voted to ratify a labor agreement with the company, the union said. The Associated Press reported the five-year contract was ratified with 86% support.
The deal covers 5,000 unionized employees at Anheuser-Busch, including brewers, packagers, and warehouse workers, and provides wage increases totaling 23% over the life of the contract, plus a $2,500 ratification bonus, the union said. It also improves healthcare and retirement benefits and job security, the union said.
The Teamsters had threatened a strike at the brewer’s 12 U.S. plants if an agreement on a new five-year contract wasn’t reached by Feb. 29. Before the deadline, the two sides said they had reached a tentative agreement that was put to union members for a ratification vote.
U.S. Economy Adds 275,000 Jobs in February
The U.S. economy added 275,000 jobs in February, according to the Labor Department’s jobs report on Friday, significantly more than the 200,000 expected by economists.
Job gains occurred in health care, government, food services and drinking places, social assistance, and transportation and warehousing. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate increased to 3.9% from 3.7% in January — the first increase in the unemployment rate in four months.
Average hourly earnings, watched closely as an inflation indicator, showed a slightly less than expected increase for the month and a deceleration from a year ago, reported CNBC. Wages rose just 0.1% on the month, one-tenth of a percentage point below the estimate, and were up 4.3% from a year ago, down from the 4.5% gain in January and slightly below the 4.4% estimate.
“There’s no new thing under the sun between this report and last month’s report. It doesn’t really give us a whole lot of information, other than we can qualitatively say, we’re still growing jobs at a good pace and wages are still a little bit higher than we would like,” Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade Americas, told CNBC.
Labor Unions End Starbucks Board Fight
As reported by Reuters, a coalition of labor unions said on Tuesday it is ending its boardroom fight at Starbucks after the coffee chain agreed last week to work toward reaching labor agreements.
The Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of North American labor unions, is withdrawing its three director candidates for the coffee chain's 11-member board. The move comes one week before Starbucks investors were slated to elect directors to oversee corporate strategy at the company's March 13 annual meeting. The announcement takes place more than two years into a campaign that has unionized nearly 400 Starbucks stores.
The fight was closely watched on Wall Street because it marked the first time a labor union used tools traditionally employed by hedge funds to push for board seats at a corporation.
Millions of Train, Air Passengers Affected by Strikes in Germany
Millions of travelers across Germany were affected by strikes on Thursday after two unions called for two-day walkouts over wages and work conditions, according to the Associated Press.
About 80% of all long-distance trains as well as regional and commuter trains in the country were canceled as train drivers went on strike. Air travel was affected as well, as ground staff for German airline Lufthansa stopped working early in the morning.
Negotiations continue for Lufthansa ground staff and German rail operator Deutsche Bahn’s train drivers. The train drivers’ union GDL and Ver.di called for the strikes Thursday and Friday.
In addition to pay raises, GDL has been calling for working hours to be reduced from 38 to 35 per week without a pay cut, which Deutsche Bahn has refused. The Ver.di union seeks a 12.5% pay raise, or at least 500 euros ($542) more per month, in negotiations for nearly 25,000 Lufthansa ground workers including check-in, aircraft handling, maintenance and freight staff.
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