​FCA spokeswoman Jodi Tinson and UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg declined to comment.

Details leaking out ahead of a union leadership briefing on Friday have been confirmed by sources familiar with the proposal that was reached just prior to the Wednesday night deadline that averted a potential strike by 40,000 unionized workers.
The agreement addresses some of the main areas of contention in the original tentative agreement reached Sept. 15 which was rejected by 65% of the membership.
Highlights of the deal:​
•Entry-level workers would reach the same $29 an hour base wage as their senior colleagues over eight years; a 53% increase from the $19 an hour top wage now.
•Workers hired before 2007 still get a 3% raises in the first and third year and two lump sum payments


•All workers still get a $3,000 signing bonus when the agreement is ratified.
•Profit sharing, based on hours worked, will be paid equally to all employees -- eliminating the past proposal of paying entry-level workers more.
•Cost of living allowance is not reinstated.
•Health care costs do not increase, with the exception of an emergency room charge if the visit is not an emergency.
•Some future plant, product and employment plans will be shared with workers
​FCA spokeswoman Jodi Tinson and UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg declined to comment.
UAW President Dennis Williams told members in a post just after midnight that the new agreement contains "significant gains." He said, "we heard from our members and went back to FCA to strengthen their contract."
A key area was addressing the inequity of having two workers doing the same work but paying an employee hired before 2007 twice as much as a newer hire.
About 45% of FCA workers are lower tier and they sought a clear path to the top wage level.
The proposal gets a new hire to the new $29 an hour base wage at the end of eight years. It would be a shorter grow-in period for workers who already have some seniority with the company. The previous agreement increased their rate to $25 an hour over four years.

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Posted in: Automobiles

Despite modest gains towards pay equality in recent years

California passed this October a pay equity law — one of the first of its kind — that expands the grounds on which women can challenge gender discrimination in the workplace. Similar legislation at the national level has been unsuccessful. Despite modest gains towards pay equality in recent years, women are still paid less than 80 cents for every dollar a man earns. In some states, the gaps are far worse.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed a range of economic, leadership, and health factors to identify the 10 worst states for women. Utah trails the nation as the state with the worst gender gaps, while Oregon has the smallest gender gaps overall.

Nationwide, a typical female earns $38,941 annually, nearly $10,000 less than the median annual salary of a typical male of $48,745. In no state do women have higher incomes than men. Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, noted that even millennial women, who tend to be more educated than their male peers, are paid less on average than millennial men.
According to Hartmann, job discrimination is one of the primary drivers of gender inequality, and this partly explains the differences between states. Women are far more likely to work in service oriented, health, financial, or education-related fields than in many other industries. In states where these fields dominate, “women will do better than they do in states that might be heavily dominated by mining or manufacturing or other forms of resource extraction like agriculture and forestry,” Hartmann said.

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Posted in: World News

The largest regional trade agreement in history involves the United States and 11 countries in the Asia Pacifi

The largest regional trade agreement in history involves the United States and 11 countries in the Asia Pacific and the Americas, which collectively represent about 40% of world GDP and around a quarter of global exports.
More than five years in the making, the TPP, as it is commonly referred to, was finalized on Monday, but it still needs the approval of lawmakers in member countries, including the U.S. Congress.
Given the importance of the accord, which is designed to boost cross-border trade and investment among member countries and, ultimately, economic growth, it might seem strange that China, the world’s second largest economy and biggest trading nation on the planet, has been left out.
While a lot of the details of the deal are still secret, the TPP is clearly more than just a free trade agreement. In addition to slashing or eliminating 98% of tariffs on thousands of goods including dairy, beef, sugar, cars, tractors and chemicals, it also establishes common rules and regulations for trade and investment across member countries as well as external tribunals to sort out disputes.
TPP member states will include the United States, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru. More countries are expected to join the exclusive trading club, but given the tough membership rules, China is not expected to sign up any time soon.
Perhaps never.

Excluding China has been widely interpreted as an attempt by the United States to curtail Beijing’s growing political and economic might in the Asia Pacific region, and some experts have described it as a “terrible mistake.”
But does Beijing really care? Possibly not as much as you might think.
For starters, China doesn’t need to belong to the TPP to enjoy some of the perks that come with being a member.
Beijing already has free trade agreements with more than half of the TPP countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Brunei and Vietnam, and it can exploit those arrangements to minimize or avoid import duties that would normally apply to made-in-China products.
Felipe Caro and Christopher Tang of UCLA's Anderson School of Management explained in Fortune magazine this week how that could work.
“To satisfy certain country­-of-­origin conditions stipulated in TPP, China can manage the supply chain operations of cotton shirts by importing cotton from Pakistan (via its existing free trade agreement with China) and conduct 'upstream' operations, such as fabric design, knitting and dyeing at home.
"Then China can ship the fabric to Vietnam (via an existing free trade agreement with China). At the same time, Japan can ship the buttons to Vietnam (via the TPP). Vietnam can perform 'downstream' operations (sewing) and then ship the finished shirts via TPP agreement to Australia, Japan and the United States, cutting off the 5%, 10.9% and 16.5% import duties that would have applied if China had dealt directly with these countries.”
And China clearly doesn’t require the TPP to enhance its already sizeable influence in the world.

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Posted in: World News

Medical emergencies are rare, but hardly unprecedented in commercial flights.

Medical emergencies are rare, but hardly unprecedented in commercial flights.

It's far less common when they involve the plane's pilot -- and that pilot dies.

That's what happened Monday on an American Airlines flight between Phoenix and Boston.

Captain Michael Johnston, 57, was piloting the plane when he fell ill somewhere en route. The co-pilot landed the jet safely.

Crew members "took extraordinary care of Mike, each other and our customers," airline CEO Doug Parker said in a statement sent to employees.

"We couldn't be more proud of the teamwork this crew showed during an extremely difficult time."

American Airlines pilot dies mid-flight, co-pilot lands 02:17

An autopsy and preliminary toxicology tests "showed that the death was the result of natural diseases," the Onondaga County, New York, medical examiner's office said -- without offering specifics.

Johnston's wife, BJ, told CNN affiliate KUTV-TV that her husband had a double bypass surgery in 2006. She said she was told he likely died of a heart attack.

"Whatever happened in the cockpit, none of us will know," passenger Frank Cacciola told CNN affiliate WCVB-TV.

Cacciola was among the 147 passengers and five crew members aboard Flight 550 when it took off around midnight. Their Airbus A320 plane was being operated by U.S. Airways, which is part of American.

After the pilot fell ill, the flight was diverted to Syracuse, New York.

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Posted in: Airlines

The blue-chip Dow was up about 60 points, or 0.3%, at 11 a.m. The Dow is in rally mode. It is riding a five-session win streak

The Dow, which was trading higher in morning trading, looks to extend its rebound rally off its recent correction lows to six sessions as stocks continue to head higher after the release of minutes of the Federal Reserve's meeting last month lowered investor expectations for an interest rate hike this year.
The blue-chip Dow was up about 60 points, or 0.3%, at 11 a.m. The Dow is in rally mode. It is riding a five-session win streak — its longest since December. And it is up 578 points, or 3.5%, for the week, putting it on track for its best weekly advance since a nearly 660-point, 3.8%, run-up in early February.
Also higher was the broader Standard & Poor's 500, which is up 0.3%. The Nasdaq composite is up 0.6%.
U.S.-producted crude was also higher, at one point climbing above the key $50 a barrel level.
Stocks also rallied overseas, putting global shares on track for their best week since 2011, according to Reuters. At midday in Europe, the MSCI world equity index was up 0.8%, its eighth up day in a row, putting the index up 4.5% on the week, its best performance since late 2011, Reuters reported.
Wall Street is enjoying a relief rally after the U.S. stock market suffered its first 10% price correrction in four years in late summer. The renewed buying has been driven by a belief that the Fed will hold off on rate hikes until next year due to fears about global tumult and still-weak inflation. Wall Street's interpretation of the September Fed meeting minutes, which were released Thursday, is that the Fed will keep rates "lower for longer."

The delay in rate hikes has translated into a weaker dollar, which has given commodities, such as hard-hit oil, a big boost. A weaker dollar also makes U.S. products more affordable abroad, which benefits sales and earnings of big U.S. multinationals.

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Posted in: World News

Britain slips down global competitiveness league table

Britain has slipped down a place in the global competitiveness rankings, despite cementing its status as the “epicentre” of Europe’s start-up scene, according to the World Economic Forum.

The WEF’s flagship report said Britain’s ability to draw top talent from abroad through its universities and burgeoning digital economy meant the country could “count on a well educated workforce”.

“The country has created a good set of conditions for its vibrant service sector to develop and for London to become the epicenter of the European tech and start-up scene,” the WEF said.

However, its global competitiveness report said Britain’s broad improvement this year was smaller than its peers, and the country slipped down a place to 10th in 2015.

The WEF said poor maths and science skills remained a “long-term problem” for the UK, while Britain’s stubbornly high deficit and debt ratios placed it 108th out of 140 countries.

Switzerland, which was ranked the most competitive country for the seventh consecutive year, was praised by the WEF for its world-class research institutions and high spending on research and development.
Singapore was ranked the second most competitive country, followed by the US and Germany, while Sweden’s top education system and high rank for innovation helped it to leapfrog the UK into ninth place.
However, the report said there were “worrying signs” that a “new normal” of lower growth was emerging.
The UK performed better than many other advanced economies
“Seven years after the global financial crisis, the world economy is evolving against the background of the “new normal” of lower economic growth, lower productivity growth, and high unemployment.
"Although overall prospects remain positive, growth is expected to remain below the levels recorded in previous decades in most developed economies and in many emerging markets,” the report said.
The WEF urged policymakers to implement “productivity-enhancing reforms” to avoid low growth becoming entrenched.
A spokesman for the UK government said: “Today’s figures show that the UK remains one of the top 10 best places in the world to start and grow a business. Our focus is firmly fixed on increasing productivity.”

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Posted in: World News

VW scandal: 1.2m UK vehicles affected

Volkswagen has announced that nearly 1.2 million of its vehicles sold in the UK are fitted with the software behind the emissions scandal.

It includes diesel-powered cars with the VW brand, Audi, Seat and Skoda as well as VW commercial vehicles.
In the next few days the company will give the vehicle identification numbers to retailers as well as coming up with a process for owners to check if their vehicles are affected.
VW will then start contacting owners.
The company stressed that all the vehicles are still safe and roadworthy.
VW plans to present its plans for resolving the problems with the affected vehicles to regulators next month.
The specific number of vehicles affected under each brand are:

• Volkswagen cars 508,276
• Audi 393,450
• Seat 76,773
• Skoda 131,569
• VW commercial vehicles 79,838
• Total 1,189,906

---

Analysis: John Moylan, industry correspondent

The UK was always likely to have substantial numbers of the diesel cars involved in this scandal.
It has long been the biggest new car market in the EU after Germany. Forecourt incentives, including the use of innovative financing deals, pushed new car sales to a 10-year high in 2014.
And around half of all new cars bought here are diesels.
In 2001 Labour introduced a graded system for vehicle excise duty which penalised vehicles that emitted higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Diesels typically emit less CO2 than equivalent petrol cars. So many consumers have switched to diesel from petrol believing they could save money and go green.
There's probably another factor too.
British consumers like quality brands and are prepared to pay for them. More than 900,000 of the almost 1.2m vehicles involved in the UK are VW and Audi branded models.
The emissions scandal began in the US when regulators discovered that certain vehicles made by Volkswagen were fitted with software that would make their diesel engines operate differently when they sensed that the car was being tested.It meant that the vehicles emitted considerably more pollutants in real world driving conditions than they had in testing.
As a result of the scandal, VW chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned and was replaced by former Porsche boss Matthias Mueller.
The carmaker has so far set aside €6.5bn to cover the costs of the scandal.
It has said that 11 million vehicles worldwide are affected, of which 500,000 were in the US

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Posted in: World News

Eurozone returns to deflation

Deflation returned to the countries that use the euro in September as prices fell at an annual rate of 0.1%.

It is the first time inflation had turned negative for six months, with an 8.9% fall in the price of energy largely responsible for the decline.
Core inflation in the eurozone, which strips out energy and food prices, showed a 0.9% rise, the same as August.
The Eurostat statistics agency also said the eurozone's unemployment rate for August was unchanged at 11%.
Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), warned earlier this month that inflation could turn negative.
The bank expects inflation to be 0.1% in 2015 as a whole, rising to 1.5% in 2016 and 1.7% in 2017.
The ECB is spending €60bn (£44bn) on asset purchases, under its programme known as Quantitative Easing (QE), every month for the next year in an attempt to boost prices.

Losing impetus

Despite some growth and inflation in the first half of the year there are signs the recovery is losing its impetus.
Some economists fear the slowdown in the Chinese economy could seriously damage the European and US economy.
On Wednesday the Bank of Spain said that it expected economic growth there to slow from 1% to 0.8% in the third quarter, and that the recovery in the jobs market had tailed off over the summer.
The prospect of deflation and a slowing economy increases pressure on the ECB to increase QE or carry it beyond September next year.
Timo del Carpio, European economist at RBC Capital Markets, said: "The [ECB's] governing council will look to cement expectations over the continuation of its asset purchase programmes beyond their nominal end-date of September 2016.
"However, it may not be until the December meeting... that the governing council is prepared to make such a judgement."
After the news the euro weakened against the dollar to $1.1209 from $1.1252 on Tuesday, a fall of 0.35%.

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Posted in: World News

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection vs Uncharted

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is no less than wonders for players who migrate from Xbox to PlayStation family with PlayStation 4. Sony wanted these players to experience one of the most beloved PlayStation franchise before they try out their hands on the fourth instalment, Uncharted: A Thief's End. Recently, Bluepoint Games showcased how Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection looks on PlayStation 4, if you missed out on showing don't worry we have some actual gameplay screenshots of the collection (taken via Photo Mode) below.

These screenshots were shared by Neogaf user Blimblim. Each game in Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection runs at 1080p/60FPS with better lighting, textures, and models. Also added are a range of improvements and additions including Photo Mode and new trophies.
Furthermore, Blimblim also shared the famous Uncharted 3 Tree texture screenshot, giving a good glimpse at how it looks on PlayStation 4. We have the comparison screenshot below for you, take a look.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection will launch on October 9, 2015. The game has been rated T for Teen: Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Tobacco, Violence, Includes online features that may expose players to unrated user-generated content.

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Posted in: Detactive

Fallout 4 Xbox One

The Fallout 4 Xbox One product page has been updated, revealing the role-playing game's file size on Microsoft's console: 28.12 GB. As people are saying, that seems fairly trim for such a large- and ambitious-sounding game. But compression is likely keeping the overall file size down.
Bethesda Game Studios' last title, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, was just 3.68 GB on Xbox 360. Fallout: New Vegas, meanwhile, was 4.75 GB, while Fallout 3 weighed in at 5.48 GB.

File size details for the PlayStation 4 and PC editions of Fallout 4 are not yet available. We have followed up with Bethesda in an attempt to confirm details about Fallout 4's file size.
The Fallout 4 release date is set for November 10 across all platforms.
Recently, Bethesda announced post-launch content release plans for the game, which include regular free updates, paid DLC, mods, and more. In addition, you can watch Fallout 4 composer Inon Zur play the game's theme music in this stunning video. On top of that, Bethesda has shared new details about Fallout 4's revamped perk system.

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Posted in: Action

BP has reached an $18.7bn (£12bn) settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP has reached an $18.7bn (£12bn) settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

It comes as a US federal judge was expected to rule on how much BP owed in Clean Water Act penalties following the environmental disaster.
Over 125 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf after an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in 2010.
The settlement is the largest paid by a single company in US history .
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was one of the worst environmental disasters in US history and claimed the lives of 11 people.
In December the US Supreme Court rejected the oil giant's legal challenge over an original compensation deal agreed in 2012.
At the time BP had already paid out $2.3bn in so-called business economic loss claims out of a total of $4.25bn in compensation claims to individuals and businesses, according to Patrick Juneau, the administrator appointed by the courts to handle claims.

Under the agreement BP will;:

• Pay the US a civil penalty of $5.5bn under the Clean Water Act - over 15 years.
• Pay $7.1bn to the US government and five Gulf states including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana over 15 years for natural resource damages.
• A total of $4.9bn will be paid over 18 years to settle economic and other claims made by the five Gulf Coast states.
• Up to $1bn will be paid to resolve claims made by more than 400 local government entities.

BP said it expected impact of the settlement to be to "increase the cumulative pre-tax charge associated with the Deepwater Horizon accident and spill by around $10bn from $43.8bn at the end of the first quarter".

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Be your own boss

Frustrated with your job? Feel like strangling your colleagues? Want to push your boss from the top of a cliff? Cry buckets of tears when you get your pay cheque? Want to start your own business?

If you have answered in affirmative to any of these questions, here's fast and safe way to be an instant and successful entrepreneur. No, we aren't spinning the spiel of a swindler. As thousands of Indians have discovered, there is a less risky way to start a business than setting up your own venture: franchise. The franchise industry has opened a wide window for many would-be entrepreneurs, who have the zeal and the zest, but not enough business expertise. Buying a franchise lets you be your own boss in any field that you are passionate about without the added worries that is a given with your own venture—ideation, brand building, infrastructure, legal problems.

The best part? You get help to start a business anywhere, at any age and with any budget. Bangalore-based Lourdu Mary retired as a primary school teacher five years ago. "However, I got bored within a few years, but finding another job at my age was impossible. When I came to know that I could open my own pre-school with just Rs 3.5 lakh, I jumped at the opportunity," says the 65-year-old. The company, My Apple School, provides the curriculum, support and training to her staff.
The supporting appeal of the franchise industry has been the reason for the surge in its popularity in the past decade. Currently worth Rs 82,500 crore, it is estimated to grow to about Rs 2.91 lakh crore by 2017, according to the Indian Franchise Report 2012. The main reason is that both domestic and international companies want to expand their footprints, but don't consider it a viable proposition to do it on their own due to operational and financial pressures.
They prefer to look for partners who can invest to run a branch of their business. From international brands like Domino's and Dunkin' Donuts, to domestic ones like NIIT and Naturals, a lot of companies are opting for the franchising model. It's estimated that the franchise industry is growing at a rapid pace of 40% a year. One of the biggest gainers of this warp-speed growth is Ravi Jaipuria, chairman of the privately held RJ Corp. He is India's newest billionaire, with a fortune estimated at Rs 8,250 crore, and has built his fortune as a franchisee for brands like Pepsi, Pizza Hut, KFC and Costa Coffee. So, do you want to get on this super-fast bandwagon to business bonanza?


Where should you start?
The first thing you need to decide is whether you are fit to be a franchisee. Don't be blinded by dreams of instant riches or assume that because you have a ready-made business plan, you can relax in a hammock and soak the sun. Running a franchise will require as much hard work and effort as running your own venture. Says Gaurav Marya, president of Franchise India: "A franchisee needs to understand that while he has bought a brand name, and with it the potential clientele, the onus is on him to grow the business. It's not an 'invest and forget' option."
The business also comes with stringent conditions about how the workplace will look, the products that will be used, the programme menu that will be implemented, the royalty that will have to be paid, and so on. Individual innovation is rarely possible and thinking out of the box could be frowned upon. So, carefully study the pros and cons before you sign a franchise deal.

Once you've made up your mind to buy a franchise, you'll have to decide what exactly to do. With almost 3,700 companies in about 15 diverse sectors, from food and footwear to furniture and furnishing, the choices can befuddle you. Go through the story, 'Which franchise is best for you?' to figure out where you should dip your toes. On deciding where you want to start from, you can narrow down your choices. Marya advises that if you're a newbie, it may be better to start a business in the field of your professional expertise. "When you understand the intricacies of an industry, you are well-equipped to handle the daily business and any crises that may crop up," he says. Also, you will be in tune with the realities of the sector, which could help you identify the right company to partner.
Angad Singh followed this tenet when he moved back to India after working for a couple of years at a hotel in Melbourne, Australia. His father, Ravinder Singh, had taken VRS from a bank, but wanted to continue working. The father-son duo invested their savings to buy a franchise of New York Pizza and Fried Chicken in Chandigarh. "Both my father and I are passionate about food, but neither of us had the expertise to set up and run a business. Taking a franchise was the logical answer," says the 26-year-old.

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Posted in: Business