6:28 am, November 7, 2023
Amazon workers to strike in long-running pay row
Amazon workers will launch a series of strikes today in a long-running dispute over pay.
Members of the GMB union at the online giant’s Coventry site will walk out for three days, and again on November 24 – Black Friday.
The union announced that around 1,000 workers will be on strike after criticising a pay offer it said was worth £1 an hour.
Surge in number of drivers stealing fuel
The number of fuel thefts from filling stations in Britain has soared, new figures suggest.
Data obtained by the RAC Foundation indicate that forecourt owners attempted to trace offenders over 39,563 incidents between July and September.
That’s up 77% from 22,335 during the same period last year, and is a fourfold-plus increase on the total of 8,558 for those three months in 2019. The foundation said the rise could be due to ‘systematic criminal activity’.
Fears for jobs as British Steel confirms plans to shut blast furnaces
British Steel is to close down the blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant in a move that unions say could cost up to 2,000 jobs.
The Chinese-owned company said it planned to replace them with two electric arc versions that can run on zero-carbon electricity, if it gets ‘appropriate support from the UK government’.
It would build one new electric arc furnace in Scunthorpe and another at its Teesside plant, and said the new furnaces could be operational by late 2025.
Nearly half of van drivers admit overloading vehicles – survey
Nearly half of van drivers overload their vehicles despite the vast majority of them knowing the legal weight restriction.
That’s according to a Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles survey of 1,000 drivers, which found that 48 per cent of them admitted overloading their vans in the past year despite a possible fine of up to £300.
Vans loaded beyond 30 per cent of their gross vehicle weight could see owners hit with a court summons and even a custodial sentence in the most extreme circumstances. New van market rises for 10th month in a row
Post Office customers to be offered DPD and Evri parcel delivery options
The Post Office is offering customers the option of sending packages using DPD and Evri by buying parcel postage in its branches.
For the first time in its 360-year history, Post Office customers will be able to choose other parcel carriers over the counter in branches.
The new service will begin in selected branches in time for the peak Christmas delivery season.
TikTok says 1.5m UK businesses now using the platform
Nearly 1.5m UK firms are using TikTok to promote their business, the social media giant has said.
Releasing figures on UK business use of the platform for the first time, TikTok said research from Oxford Economics showed activity by small and medium-sized firms on the site contributed £1.63bn to the economy last year and supported about 32,000 jobs.
TikTok said many people were using its online TikTok Shop to buy goods and services from smaller businesses.
Just Stop Oil protesters smash glass protecting National Gallery painting
Two Just Stop Oil protesters smashed the glass covering a painting on display at the National Gallery.
The protesters used safety hammers to break the glass protecting the Rokeby Venus at the museum in central London on Monday.
The Metropolitan Police said activists had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. The artwork, painted by Diego Velazquez in the mid-1600s, was slashed by suffragette Mary Richardson in March 1914.
WeWork files for bankruptcy protection
Office-sharing company WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
In a statement yesterday, the New York-based company, which has sites worldwide, said it had entered into a restructuring support agreement with stakeholders to ‘drastically reduce’ its $2.9bn (circa £2.35bn) debt while further evaluating its commercial office lease portfolio.
WeWork is requesting the ‘ability to reject the leases of certain locations’, which the company says are largely non-operational, as part of the filing.
Yesterday’s headlines on Car Dealer you might have missed
- Used car dealership to close following brutal arson attack just days after owner’s funeral
- Best October for new car registrations since 2019, but EV growth is still ‘subdued’ – SMMT
- Used car prices slipped again in October but demand is still ‘robust’ – Auto Trader
- Used car dealers warned to monitor live pricing as values fall further 1.5% in 10 days
- Cazoo launches exchange offer over ‘loan’ notes as it seeks to cut debt
- New van market rises for 10th month in row but battery-electric van sales are down
Market movements
The FTSE 100 closed 0.03 points up yesterday to end the day on 7,417.76. The Cac 40 was down 33.77 points at 7,013.73, the Dax was down 53.28 points at 15,135.97 but the Dow Jones was up 34.54 points at 34,095.86.
Weather outlook
Today will see variable cloud and showers, mainly in the western and northern parts, some of them pushing further east in the afternoon, according to BBC Weather. It’ll turn drier and brighter later on but will be breezy in the south.
Wednesday will be windy with rain gradually spreading east and clearing from the far east during the afternoon. Sunny spells will be behind it, but the north-west will have some blustery showers.
