AFP

Amazon workers at an upstate New York warehouse began voting Wednesday on whether to unionize in the latest labor battle following a surprise union win earlier this year at another Amazon site.

Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which won a unionization vote in April at the 8,000-employee JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island in New York City, is hoping to follow up that upset with another win at a much smaller Amazon facility near the state capital Albany.

Some 400 full-time hourly workers at the ALB1 site in Castelton-On-Hudson, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Manhattan, will vote between Wednesday and Monday on whether to be represented by ALU.

The National Labor Relations Board, which is overseeing the election, plans to begin counting ballots on Tuesday, October 18.

The NLRB moved ahead with the election after the ALU submitted signatures from more than the 30 percent of employees needed.

Amazon has signaled complete opposition to the effort.

“We remain skeptical that there are a sufficient number of legitimate signatures to support the union’s petition for an election, but the NLRB is moving forward,” said Amazon spokesman Paul Flaningan.

“We’ve always said that we want our employees to have their voices heard, and we hope and expect this process allows for that.”

Led by its president Christian Smalls, a former worker at the Staten Island site, the ALU gave a jolt to the US organized labor movement this spring after a solid majority voted for representation.

However, just weeks later, the ALU suffered a setback when the LDJ5 warehouse, also in Staten Island, voted against the group.

Amazon has refused to accept the election outcome in the first Staten Island vote, arguing the results should be tossed out in light of alleged improprieties.

Last month, an NLRB official rejected Amazon’s claims as groundless after a 24-day hearing on the e-commerce giant’s claims. 

Flaningan said Amazon “strongly” disagrees with the NLRB official’s decision and plans to appeal.

The ongoing fight over the election has prevented contract talks between the ALU and Amazon at JFK8.

Britain will introduce a cap on the revenues of companies that produce low-carbon electricity in an attempt to mitigate the impact of soaring energy prices on consumers.

The temporary cap on energy companies that produce electricity from renewables and nuclear is being introduced in England and Wales, the government said in a statement late Tuesday.

The measure “will reduce the impact of unprecedented wholesale prices on consumers and the taxpayer by introducing a revenue limit, curbing the amount generators can make”, the government said.

The main opposition Labour party called the measure a “windfall tax”, which business minister Jacob Rees-Mogg denied. 

He told the BBC that, after intervening on retail energy prices, the British government was now acting on wholesale prices.

“This is simply mischaracterising what’s being done, and misunderstands how the market works,” he said.

“What this is doing is rationalising the market in a way that energy companies have been in favour,” he added.

“It’s clearly not a tax. It’s nothing to do with the profits these companies are making.”

Liz Truss successfully campaigned to become prime minister by saying she was opposed to the idea of a tax on the profits of energy giants. 

The previous government of Boris Johnson introduced a one-off tax on the profits of oil and gas companies, but this could largely be offset by investment in hydrocarbon production.

– ‘Double standard’ –

Before the introduction of recent energy subsidies, “businesses and consumers had been left facing increasing financial turmoil, with energy bills estimated to increase to as high as £6,500 before the government stepped in,” the government said. 

Truss last month introduced a two-year cap on energy bills for domestic consumers at £2,500 ($2,770) a year per average household.

Businesses will have around half their bills covered for six months. 

The UK is particularly reliant on gas for its electricity, the price of which has soared since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. 

Shell boss Ben van Beurden last week told an energy conference that in light of soaring energy prices and resulting inflation, governments should be imposing more taxes on companies in the sector.

Dhara Vyas, policy director at industry lobbyists Energy UK, warned that the new revenue cap mechanism, the details of which are yet to be worked out, must not “risk the very investment the UK needs to ensure long-term, sustainable economic growth”. 

Dan McGrail, chief executive of renewable energy organisation RenewableUK, added that the move risked “skewing investment towards the fossil fuels that have caused this energy crisis”.

Environmental NGO Greenpeace UK accused the government of a “glaring double standard”.

“Was it just a dream or did we all hear the prime minister say, just weeks ago, she was against a windfall tax?,” said policy director Doug Parr.

“Now she’s going to impose a de facto one after all but only on electricity generators, not a proper one on oil and gas firms. This glaring double standard makes no sense.” 

Soaring food and energy prices are raising the risk of social unrest, but attempting to tame costs through tax cuts, subsidies and price controls would be too costly, the IMF said Wednesday.

The fund’s comments, in its latest Fiscal Monitor report, come as food prices have surged by half since 2019 while energy bills soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Countries all around the world are facing more pressing and more painful trade offs,” Vitor Gaspar, director of the International Monetary Fund’s fiscal affairs department, told AFP as the crisis lender holds its annual meetings in Washington this week.

The combination of inflation along with food and energy price surges point to a cost-of-living crisis, he said.

Countries spent heavily to protect their economies during the pandemic, then faced supply chain issues as they emerged from Covid lockdowns.

Inflation soared further after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, with food and energy costs going through the roof, forcing central banks to raise interest rates aggressively.

“Households are struggling with elevated food and energy prices, raising the risk of social unrest,” the IMF Fiscal Monitor report said.

But, it added, “fiscal policy trade-offs are increasingly difficult, especially for high-debt countries where responses to the Covid-19 pandemic exhausted their fiscal space.”

– ‘More generous’ food aid –

As governments operate within tighter budgets, prioritizing policies and programs becomes vital, the report said, adding that key goals are ensuring access to affordable food and protecting low-income households from inflation.

There appears to be an “association between social unrest and episodes of spikes in food prices,” while fuel prices are politically sensitive, IMF fiscal affairs department deputy director Paolo Mauro told reporters.

Countries have to be selective in giving support, he said, but the IMF recommends being “more generous” on food as a need for survival.

However, with long-lasting supply shocks and broad-based inflation, attempts to cap surging costs through price controls, subsidies or tax cuts will be “costly to the budget and ultimately ineffective,” the IMF warned.

Officials should instead allow prices to adjust and provide targeted cash transfers to the most vulnerable.

Most countries should continue “tightening” their budgets, the report said.

Asked about Britain’s controversial tax-slashing plans, which rocked the pound and raised the country’s borrowing costs, Gaspar told reporters that monetary and fiscal policies should be consistent, with markets “looking for certainty in a very uncertain world.”

“The expectation is that the announcement of a full-fledged fiscal plan on October 31 accompanied by a macroeconomic forecast… will contribute to give to the market the certainty that it seeks,” he said.

Countries may need to raise added revenues and contain the growth of other expenditures as they prioritize policies, the IMF report said.

Fiscal costs can be offset by measures like taxes, it added, suggesting that a permanent tax on “windfall profits” from fossil fuel extraction based on excess gains “can be considered” if an adequate instrument is not already in place.

But the report cautioned that low-income countries will need more global humanitarian assistance and emergency financing given their limited resources, adding that the biggest challenge comes from the food price surge.

The Bank of England on Wednesday insisted it would end emergency buying of UK bonds by the weekend but sent markets into further frenzy as economic uncertainty grips Britain.

The BoE launched a bond-buying drive in late September aimed at quelling market turmoil triggered by an uncosted budget unveiled by the government of new Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Following a Financial Times report on Wednesday that the BoE could extend its buying of UK government debt, the central bank insisted it would end purchases of long-dated bonds on Friday.

Amid all the uncertainty, the yield on Britain’s 30-year bond, or gilt, rose back above five percent close to a 24-year peak.

The yield on the 10-year gilt reached 4.64 percent, the highest level since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The BoE on Wednesday insisted that “its temporary and targeted purchases of gilts will end on 14 October”.

It also confirmed, however, that measures to boost liquidity would remain in place beyond Friday.

The bank has jumped into bond markets to protect financial stability after yields rocketed and the pound tumbled to a record dollar-low following Britain’s tax-slashing budget.

In particular, the BoE feared for British pension funds that invest in traditionally low-volatility state bonds.

Speaking on the sidelines of an International Monetary Fund gathering in Washington on Tuesday, BoE governor Andrew Bailey confirmed that pension fund managers had “three days left” until the bank’s bond purchases ended.

“We think the BoE has put itself in a no-win situation,” said Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at financial services firm Ebury.

“Either Bailey is forced to backtrack on his pledge and extend intervention beyond Friday, potentially damaging the bank’s credibility, or end the measures as planned and risk another blowout in gilt yields.”

– ‘Bank sector resilience’ –

Separately, the BoE on Wednesday judged that Britain’s banks were “substantially more resilient” than before the 2008 crisis thanks to strong capital and liquidity.

Nevertheless, the BoE this week launched a temporary facility aimed at easing liquidity pressures that arose after the UK budget shocked markets.

The BoE’s Temporary Expanded Collateral Repo Facility allows “banks to help to ease liquidity pressures facing” client funds beyond the end of this week, it said on Monday.

In volatile trading Wednesday, the pound rallied above $1.10 as markets price in more aggressive interest-rate hikes from the BoE to try and cool decades-high inflation.

It came as official data showed the UK economy contracted in August on surging prices.

The BoE’s emergency bond-buying programme offered to buy up to £65 billion ($72 billion) in long-dated gilts, although the current total is far below the limit.

The bank this week widened the scope of its daily purchases of gilts to include debt linked to the UK inflation rate, currently at around 10 percent.

In a bid to address markets chaos, finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng has brought forward UK growth and inflation forecasts to October 31, when he will also unveil plans to reduce debt.

His budget included a freeze on energy prices as millions of Britons struggle with a cost-of-living crisis.

The International Monetary Fund and ratings agencies have warned that the costly budget would cause UK government debt to balloon.

Fitch last week lowered the outlook on its credit rating for British government debt to negative from stable.

– Truss vow –

Addressing parliament Wednesday, Truss vowed not to cut public spending to bring down debt.

“We will do that not by cutting public spending but by spending public money well,” she said. 

The BoE has piled on further pressure by ramping up its main interest rate to a 14-year high of 2.25 percent in a bid to cool inflation — and is expected to hike even further at a policy meeting next month.

“Given the uncertain world and volatile markets we face, November can seem a long time away,” BoE chief economist Huw Pill said in a speech Wednesday.

“At present, I am still inclined to believe that a significant monetary policy response will be required to the significant macro and market news of the past few weeks,” he added.