Monday, November 18, 2013

What Is the 777X and Why Are the Unions Upset?



 Boeing launched its newest version of the 777, the 777X, at the Dubai Air Show yesterday (Sunday.) The 400 seat twin aisle plane is its response to Airbus's A350. Jon Ostrower gives us a peek at the plane in this Wall Street Journal video:




The 777X is the center chessboard in a match between Boeing and its unions. Boeing had built a huge new plant at the cost of a billion dollars in South Carolina. Just as it was to open it, its union brought a complaint against it before the NLRB that claimed Boeing built the plant to break the union.  With the help of a friendly NLRB, the union was able to reach a settlement with Boeing that shifted certain work to Seattle, including some from Wichita.

Now it is Boeing's move.

When it came to deciding where to build the 777X, Boeing's last big development project, it presented a deal to the State of Washington and its union with which it would build most of the 777X in Seattle.  The state offered $8.7 billion in incentives (that is a lot of money.)  It proposed a new contact to the union that would shift to a defined contribution pension plan among other concessions. However, "the 32,000 unionized members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, also known as the IAM, rejected the deal by a 67% to 33% margin."  With no deal, Boeing is looking around the country and the world to decide where to assemble the new jetliner and build the wings and other parts.  Molly Mullins reports in the Wichita Eagle that there is an attempt to get some of that work here in Wichita. She reported that "Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition officials met Thursday morning to discuss going after the 777X work for Boeing’s facility in Wichita Boeing."

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/11/14/3117036/local-machinists-voted-along-with.html#storylink=cpy

Boeing says it will decide where to build the plan in the next two to three months.

Boeing Hits a Home Run With the 777X

At the Dubai airshow, Boeing launched its 777X Largest and manage the biggest launch in commercial jetliner history with over 200 orders. Emirates Airline placed a $76 billion order for 150 of the new 777X jets. In this video, the Wall Street Journal's Rory Jones reports from Dubai.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

ANZ: We Are Still Bullish on Natural Resoures

According to the conventional wisdom, if China slows down, Australia will catch a cold.  A natural resources boom has fueled a twenty year expansion in Australia's economy. Does the slowdown in the BRICs, and particularly the "C" (China), mean the end of this Aussie expansion? No says Mike Smith. The chief executive of ANZ discusses his country's and his bank's prospects and plans with FT's Jeremy Grant in this 5:19 minute video.  But Mr Smith does not see everything as rosy in the Lucky Country: he argues the wider Australian economy needs modernization:

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Why Are 'Natural' Foods Disappearing From Shelves?

Why Are 'Natural' Foods Disappearing From Shelves? (WSJ Media & Marketing,11/5/2013 ) A growing number of food and drink companies are quietly removing "all natural" claims from packages amid lawsuits challenging the “naturalness” of everything. Mike Esterl reports on the News Hub. Photo: Naked Juice.