Le constructeur automobile am?ricain General Motors (GM) a pass? un accord avec les syndicats en Australie qui va se traduire par un gel des salaires en ?change d'un maintien en activit? d'une usine dans ce pays.
"A la suite d'un vote dans tous les sites de Holden [la filiale australienne de GM] ? travers l'Australie du Sud et ? Victoria, les employ?s de Holden ont accept? les changements propos?s ? l'accord salarial d'entreprise ? une forte majorit?", indique GM dans un communiqu? re?u vendredi 16 ao?t.
L'AUSTRALIE, "UN PAYS ? CO?TS ?LEV?S"
"Ces ?conomies de co?ts et am?liorations de comp?titivit? ?taient cruciaux pour mettre notre usine d'Elisabeth sur une trajectoire de comp?titivit? mondiale, a comment? le constructeur dans son communiqu?. L'Australie est un pays ? co?ts ?lev?s, pas seulement pour fabriquer des voitures [...]. Il ?tait d?terminant de parvenir ? baisser nos co?ts et ? mettre en place des conditions de travail souples."
La d?pr?ciation du yen ces derniers mois face au dollar australien a rendu les v?hicules nippons plus attractifs, ce qui a mis sous pression l'industrie automobile locale, particuli?rement sur le segment des petites voitures.
The plan will unroll in three phases. In the first, businesses in the 23-acre section of Willets Point just across 126th Street from the stadium, and roughly bounded by 127th Street, Roosevelt Avenue to the south and 35th Avenue to the north, face a deadline to vacate this month; they will be replaced by a hotel, a retail area and a park. Subsequent phases, in the north and northeast sections of Willets Point, will include the construction of apartment buildings and a school, among other things. The wrecking ball is days away, but Flaco and the rest of Willets Point are still at work, in a combination of denial and the need to earn a living. Just beyond the stadium, the neighborhood is in its final hours. “The city wants to close it down and build restaurants, or something else,” Flaco said. “Yes, it looks ugly,” he said of the area sprawled out behind him, “but they don’t see that we’re people.” Cleaning up or clearing out Willets Point has been a goal of nearly every mayor since the 1950s. The area is sometimes said to have inspired the “Valley of Ashes” described by F. Scott Fitzgerald in “The Great Gatsby.” It began life as Flushing Creek swampland, then became a municipal dump, and evolved into the loose configuration of salvage yards and parts shops that currently exists. Today it is a place where men who say they are good with their hands and not much else can make a living, where poverty stuns with its rawness alongside immigrant strivers who insist that this is a rare place to make strides toward better lives. All-cash transactions are standard, employers often do not ask for immigration papers, and customers seem to accept that the trade-off for rock-bottom prices means not inquiring about a mechanic’s certification. For many undocumented or new immigrants, Willets Point represents a loophole through which to slip into gainful employment in America. The Queens Development Group, a pairing of the Related Companies and Sterling Equities, which is building the new Willets Point, declined to comment. To outsiders, passing over it in the jangling elevated No. 7 train, Willets Point seems like a world unto itself. To those who make their living among the rims and wheels and carburetors and filth, it is their entire world. And it is coming to an end. 
Michael Nagle for The New York TimesA worker passing time in front of ACDC Scrap Metal Inc.IT IS HARD from the outside to understand how Willets Point functions, let alone why its denizens insist they love it, and why they fight for it. Business owners’ groups like Willets Point United have filed several lawsuits to block the city’s plans. (The plans have been modified several times and delayed for years, but not thwarted.) The shops at first glance seem to purvey the same services and goods. But competition is tempered by specialization: There’s the auto glass man, the hubcap man, the storefront that specializes in hot rods. A strictly delimited hierarchy slices through the Junkyard, as they call it, the “J” pronounced as a “Y” in the vernacular of the mostly Latino men who make up the workforce. Some of them, like Flaco, who emigrated from Puebla, Mexico, seven years ago, have no shops at all. They are known as gypsies, fixing small problems, like a sticky lock, with tools stowed in their cars, or steering customers to shops for a finder’s fee. On a good day Flaco — that is a nickname — can make $150, staying a wary distance from competitors, or else risking a fistfight. He stands for up to 11 hours, seven days a week. In the summer, Flaco’s legs swell from the heat. In the winter his fingers are often too stiff with cold to manipulate his tools. “We have to do this; if we go to another place, the people are going to ask for papers or good English,” he said. “We get used to it. This is our life. We are just trying to make money to survive.” There are brawls, but also a strong sense of brotherhood in the Junkyard, shaped by shared experience. Willets Point has only one official resident, Joseph Ardizzone, 80, who lives above one of the area’s few restaurants and has been known to wear a Revolutionary War uniform at times to protest the city’s use of eminent domain. According to the New York City Economic Development Corporation, there are 220 business owners in the area. But critics of the plan say that the number is far higher, citing businesses already closed, and that at least 1,700 workers stand to lose their livelihoods when the redevelopment is complete. “How many people are going to be out of a job?” Flaco asked. “And it’s not just those people, it’s the people behind those people, their families, their sons. If you have a guy who works at the shop, he has a wife, kids. What are they going to do?” 
Michael Nagle for The New York TimesA worker applying primer to a car's bumper at an auto parts shop.He added: “A lot of people in this junkyard, they live alone, they have their family in their countries. They don’t have nothing to do, so they just stand around here all day into the night. They are going to lose a lot of things, not just their job.” 
Michael Nagle for The New York TimesA van trying to maneuver around the potholes on Willets Point Boulevard.The city is also providing up to $9 million to help with relocation costs. Mr. Chazbani’s family’s other businesses are in Phase 2 and Phase 3, the last of which will be developed in 2025, at which point 2,500 units of housing may be built, 875 units of which will be “affordable housing.” The amount of affordable housing was a concession won by leaders from the surrounding communities, during the extensive Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, known as Ulurp, which subjected the plan to public review. But the long wait for so few units has infuriated many community advocates. “We need to have kind of a rebirth of that area,” said City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, a Democrat who represents the area and worked on the deal for years, pushing for things like increased relocation payments for the current tenants. “They also have no running water, no infrastructure,” she said. “I want them to be able to be relocated to a space so that they can progress and grow and have things that any small business in New York City has.” Plans for the shop owners to relocate as a group have not materialized. “The development, it’s better for the future, not the present,” Mr. Chazbani said. “It’s hurting me, but if I was the mayor of New York, I’d do the same thing” — per usual, his friend cut him off. “Whose side are you on?” said Mr. Harris, receiving a friendly elbow to the ribs. “But —” Mr. Chazbani said, shushing him. “If I were to take this area apart, I would make sure everyone is taken care of.” 
A trio of F-type coupes, introduced in a laser show Tuesday night. Celebrities, such as Simon Cowell and Adam Carolla, gathered with a horde of largely unknown journalists Tuesday night to greet the new Jaguar F-Type Coupe, which the automaker unveiled at an event near the Los Angeles Auto Show. 
Ian Callum, Jaguar's lead designer, introduces the new F-type Coupe. There was no shortage of union jacks, Pimm’s cups and even paper cones full of fish and chips at the event to remind guests of the car’s British pedigree. But the real excitement came when Ian Callum, Jaguar’s design director, finished his remarks and stepped away from the stage. A curtain swept to the side, revealing the cavernous interior of a former aircraft hangar, and lights and sounds simulating a helicopter assault of sorts rocked the building as a series of red lasers shone from the far end of the tunnel. With a series of throaty rasps — a sound for which the F-Type’s loud exhaust system is quickly becoming known — an F-type sped down the length of the hangar, surprising some guests as it hurtled toward the seating area and disappeared through a door below the crowd. The new coupe’s roofline is sleek, and Jeff Curry, brand vice president for Jaguar in the United States, said he thought the car would be a centerpiece for the marque. The F-type Coupe is scheduled to arrive in American showrooms this spring. The 340-horsepower supercharged V6-equipped base model will start at $65,895, including shipping. The S coupe, which packs a 380-horsepower supercharged V6, starts at $77,895, and the 550-horsepower supercharged V8 R model — a trim level Jaguar says will not appear on the convertible — starts at $99,895. Power from the all aluminum-bodied coupe will be fed through an 8-speed automatic transmission equipped with a manual shift mode for sportier driving.
As the U.S. negotiates a Pacific trade deal, Room for Debate asks: Should we replicate or avoid the North American approach?
Why is understanding the way the world works valuable in itself, above and beyond the engineering know-how that it brings?
The final Lamborghini Gallardo.