Live news: Air Canada pilots picket in Toronto amid wage hike talks

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Today’s top headlines


8:20 a.m.

Canada already in a recession: David Rosenberg

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Is Canada already in recession? Economist David Rosenberg thinks so. Real gross domestic product (GDP) dipped at a minus 0.2 per cent annual rate in the second quarter and the momentum so far into the third is minus 0.4 per cent even though population growth is at a five-decade high of 2.5 per cent, he points out in his Breakfast with Dave newsletter. Furthermore, industrial production has fallen in two of the past three months, housing starts have collapsed 11.0 per cent at an annualized rate in the past two months and real retail sales have declined at a 1.7 per cent annual rate over the past three months. Real gross domestic income, he added, is definitely in a recession, having contracted for four quarters in a row, most recently falling at a 2.6 per cent annual rate in the second quarter.

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“The population story has masked the fact that the pace of real economic activity is eroding on the back of years of neglect of private-sector capital stocks and a structural erosion in productivity,” Rosenberg said. “There is no sense debating this: Canada is in recession by almost any measure. And the Bank of Canada is playing with fire if it decides to pile on more rate hikes to what has already been the tightest policy stance since the John Crow era of the late 1980s. Remember how that ended?”

Financial Post


8:04 a.m.

Volkswagen scraps plan for new $2-billion EV factory in Germany

A VW logo on display at Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg, Germany, facility. Photo by Ronny Hartmann/AFP via Getty Images

Volkswagen AG is shelving a plan to build a €2 billion (US$2.1 billion) factory for an important new electric-car project dubbed Trinity, opting instead to make the model at its existing plant in Zwickau.
The decision is part of a broader move to allocate production of new electric vehicles across its facilities, as the carmaker’s namesake brand takes steps to finalize its five-year financial planning round expected in November.

VW’s 20-member supervisory board on Friday approved the decisions, which included a plan to build the all-electric version of its popular Golf model at its main factory in Wolfsburg, the company said Friday. The plant in Osnabrueck will continue assembling Porsche models, including an electric model from the sports-car brand.

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The decision to assign Golf production to Wolfsburg comes as the brand pushes through savings measures demanded by chief executive Oliver Blume. High demand anticipated for the model bolsters the argument to keep staffing levels high as a union-secured job security package runs out in 2029.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is due to build a new family of electric models on the forthcoming scalable EV undercarriage planned for the end of the decade.

Bloomberg


7:50 a.m.

Unifor sets Oct. 9 deadline for General Motors contract talks

A sign at the General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ont. Photo by Lars Hagberg/AFP via Getty Images

Unifor has set a deadline for its contract talks with General Motors Co. for 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 9.

Negotiations between the union and the U.S. automaker resumed this week after workers at Ford Motor Co. of Canada voted to approve a new contract.

The GM talks cover about 4,300 workers at the automaker’s St. Catharines Powertrain Plant, the Oshawa Assembly Complex and the Woodstock Parts Distribution Centre.

Unifor is looking to use its agreement at Ford as a pattern agreement in its talks with GM and Stellantis NV.

The Ford deal included wage hikes, pension and benefit improvements, and special EV transition measures for workers at Ford’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ont. It also added two new paid holidays.

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The Canadian Press


7:30 a.m.

Air Canada pilots picket in Toronto as talks for pay raises continue

Air Canada pilots are demonstrating at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport today, calling for better wages and working conditions as talks with the country’s biggest carrier continue.

Both union and employer say the so-called informational picket at Terminal 1, which comes the same day their own nine-year deal expires, will not affect Air Canada’s flight schedule.

Charlene Hudy, who heads the union’s Air Canada contingent, says the agreement has grown stale, with co-workers leaving for better pay in the United States.

Air Canada says it remains engaged in productive discussions with the union, with the deal’s provisions remaining in effect.

Pilots north of the border have been seeking gains that will bring them closer to deals won by their counterparts in the U.S.

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Between March and September, pilots at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. secured agreements that included four-year pay hikes ranging from 34 per cent to 40 per cent.

Hudy called the wage gap between Canadian and American pilots “unacceptable.”

“We’re striving for this world class contract that Air Canada pilots do deserve,” she said, highlighting career progression and job security as other points of contention.

“There was a point in time back in 2013 when we were pretty comparable — almost even — with our fellow counterparts at United.” But starting next year, United pilots will earn 92 per cent more, she said.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said the ongoing discussions are “a normal part of the bargaining process.”

“We are committed to reaching a fair, negotiated settlement with our pilot group,” he said in an emailed statement.

The Canadian Press


Stock markets: Before the opening bell

U.S. stock futures are headed higher on the last trading day of the quarter and the global bond selloff has eased after some dovish comments from Federal Reserve policymakers and signs that European inflation is slowing.

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Oil prices slipped yesterday with WTI falling to US$91.71 per barrel.


What to watch

Tick tock — a government shutdown in the United States is looking likely with Congress at an impasse before the deadline on midnight Saturday.

A shutdown would halt the paycheques of many of the federal government’s roughly two million employees, as well as two million active-duty military troops and reservists, furlough many of those workers and curtail government services.

As time runs out, the House and Senate are pursuing different paths to avert these consequences.

“I still got time. I’ve got time to do other things,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters last night at the Capitol. “At the end of the day, we’ll get it all done.”

Who knows what today might bring.

Canadians will get a view on how the economy is faring this morning with the release of real gross domestic product numbers for July. An early estimate by Statistics Canada pointed to flat GDP this month and data releases since that have supported that, says Royal Bank of Canada.

Financial Post and Associated Press


Additional reporting by The Canadian Press, Associated Press and Bloomberg

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