Willie discovers that if you ask nicely, you sometimes get what you want

June 27th, 2009 by admin | Filed under Daily News, Recession, UK employment.

employment That time honoured analogy that ” if you ask you sometimes get” has just been proven yet again with the news that around 800 British Airways employees have indeed taken up the challenge laid down their chief executive, Willie Walsh by volunteering to work without pay for up to a month In addition, almost 7,000 BA staff have offered to take pay cuts, through opting for working part-time or without pay, whilst other have agreed to take unpaid A spokesman for the airline announced yesterday that the worker’s compromise would allow temporary savings of around £10 million in 2009 alone..

Walsh hailed the workers offer as “a fantastic response” despite the fact that he came under heavy attack from Unite, the biggest union at the airline.
Groupe Eurotunnel, the company that runs the Channel tunnel is considering making a bid for the UK’s only dedicated high-speed rail line.

The move comes as Groupe Eurotunnel prepares to buy back the last of a series of financial instruments formed during the company’s complex 2007 restructuring. The line known as High Speed 1 carries trains running at up to 300kph (186mph) between the Channel tunnel and St Pancras station in London.

The High Speed 1 line which cost £5.8 billion to build is likely to fetch between a third to half of that figure. The line’s current owners are none other than the UK government who took over the line’s former owner’s London & Continental Railways, on June 8.

In a deal costing around £3.5 million Clinton Cards has bought 196 Birthdays stores out of administration. Birthdays, a subsidiary of Clinton Cards, went into administration last month after Clinton cut off funding to it.

News of the buy -out, as well as forecasts that the acquisition would contribute at least £3 million in profits for the year to July for Clinton Cards, pushed shares in the company up by 24 per cent. Clinton will need to pay only £250,000 in cash for buying stores, with the balance offset by existing loan from Birthdays to Clinton.

A spokesman from Clinton announced that said that they had chosen only the stores that were making profit and that the stores that remain open will continue operate under the Birthdays label.

Signet Jewelers Limited rose to 4.58 percent to 1,187 pence in morning trading session and climbed earlier to 1,195 pence. Over the last year shares in the high street jewelry chain have fluctuated from a low of 42.50 pence to a high of 1,449 pence.

Shares in Britain’s biggest government-controlled bank, Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, climbed 4.05 percent to 37 pence; after analysts pointed out that they expect the bank’s share price to rise against opposition banks “given its lower risk strategy.”

The benchmark FTSE 100 dropped 27.31 points to reach 4,252.57 ending a run of rises lasting three days. The FTSE 250 climbed by 22.86 points to reach 7,343.31

Sterling continued its topsy turvey trail rising slightly against dollar whilst retreating against the other major currencies on a mixed day for trading.

Pound/US dollar 1.6421
Pound/Euro 1.689
Pound/Japanese Yen 157.6885
Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7912

US stocks staged an impressive broad-based rally on Thursday with retail stocks leading the way with home furnishings retailers faring especially well. The Dow Jones was up a respectable 172.54 points to 8472.4, while the NASDAQ jumped a further 27.2 points to close on 1829.54

Reacting to accusations that he had overstepped his authority during the Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch, US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was forced to present a public defence of his actions, The House oversight committee asked him whether he had actually forced Bank of America to go through with the deal through applying excess pressure.

Prices for crude oil rose back just over the $70 a barrel mark on Thursday after an attack on a pipeline in Nigeria.