Business
British Airways union talks end in deadlock
www.britishairways.com
Talks between British Airways and unions representing the carrier’s employees, over pay and job cuts, ended in deadlock, which may lead to arbitration, potentially avoiding industrial action, it has been reported.
Earlier this week, the talks, which sought agreement over cost-cutting measures involving over 3,500 job cuts and a pay freeze, ended in a stalemate, meaning that BA’s deadline for reaching a deal was not met.
Although both GMB and Unite union representatives indicated that they would return for further talks, it was not clear if BA representative would take part.
A statement from the airline said that the talks have ended and it would issue comments “in due course”.
Sources are indicating that the conciliation service ACAS or another arbitrator could be called in to resolve the deadlock.
Should the stalemate not be resolved, the threat of industrial action by the thousands of British Airways employees looms over the busy summer travel period.
Unions have indicated their willingness to continue talks about cost-cutting measures in order to help the airline in its current financial difficulties.
For more information on this article please visit www.independent.co.uk.
www.britishairways.com
Computers
Guatemala man arrested for Twitter use
twitter.com
A Guatemalan man has the dubious honour of being one of the first people in the world to be arrested for posting a comment on the social networking site Twitter.
Jean Anleu decided to vent his annoyance with corruption in his country with a 96-character tweet.
The result was that the message may see him spending five years in prison.
Using his online alias “jeanfer”, Anleu urged depositors to withdraw their money from the country’s rural development bank. Bank management is currently being challenged in a political scandal. His tweet read: “First concrete action should be take cash out of Banrural and bankrupt the bank of the corrupt.”
According to Guatemala prosecutor Genaro Pacheco, his message illegally undermined the public’s trust in the country’s banking system. Authorities were able to prove that Anleu sent the message in a search of his home in Guatemala City. He was subsequently imprisoned alongside extortionists, kidnappers and other criminals for over a day before being released on bail.
Jose Toledo, Anleu’s lawyer, believes the Guatemalan government wants to make him an example.
Toledo said: “Clearly, the message was: Watch out, any of you guys that want to post messages, this can happen to you. … It was a dissuasive measure.”
Thanks to news.scotsman.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
twitter.com
Entertainment
Jackson concert series cancellation to cost promoter millions
aeglive.com
According to entertainment industry sources, AEG Live, the promoter of the upcoming Michael Jackson concert series, stands to lose millions.
Nearly 750,000 tickets sold for the planned 50-show run in London will have to be refunded, in a process that is expected to be extremely complex and messy.
Refunds are just the first headache for AEG Live, which is expected to lose millions of dollars due to the pop star’s death, and will have to find other acts to fill the O2 Arena on the dates it has booked.
It is expected that AEG Live and primary and secondary ticket vendors will refund money to all those who purchased concern tickets, which will make it difficult for the promoter to recoup the reported $40 million spent on booking Jackson and promoting the event. Losses will depend on how much is covered by AEG Live’s insurance policy.
Ray Waddell, the senior editor for touring at Billboard, said the ABCNews.com: “It’s a complex and messy situation, and it has to be resolved quickly, as I understand it, by U.K. law,” adding: “It would be bad enough if it were just straight up ticket sales through Ticketmaster, but a significant portion of these sales were through the ’secondary’ or resale market as producer/promoter AEG Live partnered with UK reseller Viagogo on these dates.”
Thanks to abcnews.go.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
aeglive.com
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Business
British Airways union talks end in deadlock
www.britishairways.com
Talks between British Airways and unions representing the carrier’s employees, over pay and job cuts, ended in deadlock, which may lead to arbitration, potentially avoiding industrial action, it has been reported.
Earlier this week, the talks, which sought agreement over cost-cutting measures involving over 3,500 job cuts and a pay freeze, ended in a stalemate, meaning that BA’s deadline for reaching a deal was not met.
Although both GMB and Unite union representatives indicated that they would return for further talks, it was not clear if BA representative would take part.
A statement from the airline said that the talks have ended and it would issue comments “in due course”.
Sources are indicating that the conciliation service ACAS or another arbitrator could be called in to resolve the deadlock.
Should the stalemate not be resolved, the threat of industrial action by the thousands of British Airways employees looms over the busy summer travel period.
Unions have indicated their willingness to continue talks about cost-cutting measures in order to help the airline in its current financial difficulties.
For more information on this article please visit www.independent.co.uk.
www.britishairways.com
Computers
Guatemala man arrested for Twitter use
twitter.com
A Guatemalan man has the dubious honour of being one of the first people in the world to be arrested for posting a comment on the social networking site Twitter.
Jean Anleu decided to vent his annoyance with corruption in his country with a 96-character tweet.
The result was that the message may see him spending five years in prison.
Using his online alias “jeanfer”, Anleu urged depositors to withdraw their money from the country’s rural development bank. Bank management is currently being challenged in a political scandal. His tweet read: “First concrete action should be take cash out of Banrural and bankrupt the bank of the corrupt.”
According to Guatemala prosecutor Genaro Pacheco, his message illegally undermined the public’s trust in the country’s banking system. Authorities were able to prove that Anleu sent the message in a search of his home in Guatemala City. He was subsequently imprisoned alongside extortionists, kidnappers and other criminals for over a day before being released on bail.
Jose Toledo, Anleu’s lawyer, believes the Guatemalan government wants to make him an example.
Toledo said: “Clearly, the message was: Watch out, any of you guys that want to post messages, this can happen to you. … It was a dissuasive measure.”
Thanks to news.scotsman.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
twitter.com
Entertainment
Jackson concert series cancellation to cost promoter millions
aeglive.com
According to entertainment industry sources, AEG Live, the promoter of the upcoming Michael Jackson concert series, stands to lose millions.
Nearly 750,000 tickets sold for the planned 50-show run in London will have to be refunded, in a process that is expected to be extremely complex and messy.
Refunds are just the first headache for AEG Live, which is expected to lose millions of dollars due to the pop star’s death, and will have to find other acts to fill the O2 Arena on the dates it has booked.
It is expected that AEG Live and primary and secondary ticket vendors will refund money to all those who purchased concern tickets, which will make it difficult for the promoter to recoup the reported $40 million spent on booking Jackson and promoting the event. Losses will depend on how much is covered by AEG Live’s insurance policy.
Ray Waddell, the senior editor for touring at Billboard, said the ABCNews.com: “It’s a complex and messy situation, and it has to be resolved quickly, as I understand it, by U.K. law,” adding: “It would be bad enough if it were just straight up ticket sales through Ticketmaster, but a significant portion of these sales were through the ’secondary’ or resale market as producer/promoter AEG Live partnered with UK reseller Viagogo on these dates.”
Thanks to abcnews.go.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
aeglive.com
Home Garden
Business opposition to Heathrow expansion mounts
www.heathrowairport.com
Executives from 13 major businesses in the UK have joined The Co-operative Travel in stating their opposition to Heathrow Airport expansion that involves the building of a third runway.
In a letter published in The Times newspaper this week, Carphone Warehouse’s Charles Dunstone and Sir Roy Gardner of Compass, among others, argued that the case behind the construction of a third Heathrow runway just did “not stack up”.
The managing director of Co-op Travel, Mike Greenacre, commented: “We announced our opposition to the third runway on primarily environmental grounds as part of the launch of our ethical strategy in July 2008, but it is extremely gratifying to see big organisations opposing the runway purely on business grounds.”
He went on to say: “With no business case for the third runway, alongside opposition on environmental grounds, we cannot see how this can move forward under current proposals. We urgently ask the Government to reconsider its position on Heathrow so that alternatives can be properly explored quickly and efficiently.”
The 13 business jointly issued a letter that stated, in part: “Alternatives to a third runway have not yet been adequately explored. We cannot accept that the only way to improve the passenger experience of those using Heathrow is to add an extra runway and increase flight numbers massively.”
Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
www.heathrowairport.com
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