The United Auto Workers on Friday started a walkout at the US’s three biggest, Detroit-based, car manufacturers, GM, Ford and Stellantis. It’s the first such triple action in the UAW’s 88-year-old history. They targeted three assembly plants in three different states with UAW’s top official Fain indicating that these guerilla tactics will keep the companies guessing. The union triggered the strike after two months of negotiations failed to yield new labour deals.
Apart from wage raises, better pensions and rewinning some of the privileges lost after the 2008 financial crisis, the UAW also wants guarantees that union labour will still have jobs in the electric vehicle (EV) era where the south of the US is becoming center of gravity. Fain believes that his bottleneck approach can have a similar impact as an all-out strike while putting less members on the picket line. The National Association of Manufacturers already said that small and medium-sized manufacturers across the country will feel the brunt of this work stoppage, whether they are union shop or not.
UK property broker Hamptons’ letting index showed the largest annual rental growth (12%) since the start of the index in 2014. The average rent in Britain is now £1300/month. Rents are rising fastest in Greater London (17.1% Y/Y), catching up from a slump during the pandemic, followed by Scotland (13.4% Y/Y). In a separate report, property portal Rightmove indicated that selling prices rose by 0.4% in September; the first increase since May. On an annual basis however, asking prices slid by 0.4%. Price reductions (36.6% of properties for sale) hit a level not seen since January 2011.
The shaky UK housing market complicates the picture for the Bank of England who walks an extremely fine line between taming inflation and not letting the economy go bust. The central bank meets on Thursday with money markets discounting a high probability of another 25 bps rate hike (>80%).
