Workers begin strike at UK’s largest shipping container port - Al Jazeera English | Canada News Media
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Workers begin strike at UK’s largest shipping container port – Al Jazeera English

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The strike is the latest action by workers in an array of industries calling for higher pay amid sky-high inflation.

Workers at the United Kingdom’s largest container port have begun what they say will be an eight-day strike, becoming the latest workers in the country to take action to demand higher pay amid rising inflation and the soaring cost of living.

Nearly 2,000 workers at the Port of Felixstowe, which handles about four million containers a year from 2,000 ships accounting for more than half of the country’s incoming shipping freight, walked off the job on Sunday.

The dispute has raised fears of supply chain problems and comes as the transport industry is already reeling from work stoppages, with only one in five trains running in the UK on Saturday amid a railway workers’ strike.

Postal workers also plan a four-day strike later this month, while telecoms giant BT recently faced its first stoppage in decades. Amazon warehouse staff, criminal lawyers and refuse collectors are among those who have staged walkouts in recent weeks.

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“Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK’s supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company’s own making,” Bobby Morton, the national officer for docks at the Unite union, which represents the striking Felixstowe workers, told Reuters news agency.

“It [the company] has had every opportunity [to] make our members a fair offer but has chosen not to do so.”

For its part, the Port of Felixstowe, which is owned by CK Hutchison Holding Ltd, said in a statement it was “disappointed” the walkout had gone ahead and called its offer of salary increases of on average 8 percent “fair”.

“The port provides secure and well-paid employment and there will be no winners from this unnecessary industrial action,” it added.

Inflation in the UK hit a 40-year high last month, crossing 10 percent amid soaring food and energy prices driven, in part, by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.

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The Bank of England has forecast it will top 13 percent this year, tipping the British economy into a lengthy recession.

Reporting from Felixstowe, Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett said, “Workers are struggling, as are so many across the United Kingdom, with this rampant rise in the cost of living both in terms of goods inflation, but also really frightening rises in the cost of fuelling people’s homes.”

Still, he added, the strike could worsen an already precarious situation. Shipping group Maersk, one of the world’s biggest container shippers, has warned the action would have a significant effect, causing operational delays and forcing it to make changes to its vessel lineup.

“This is a massively important port, especially in terms of textiles, but also all sorts of products brought in through here,” Fawcett said.

“So there are businesses and there are consumers around the UK already struggling. And action like this, of course, is going to make those supply chains still more vulnerable and could be a factor in increased inflation going forwards.”

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Netflix’s subscriber growth slows as gains from password-sharing crackdown subside

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Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.

The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.

Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.

The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.

The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.

The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.

The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.

Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.

In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.

“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.

As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.

Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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