More than £2bn is to be pumped into expanding two separate transport gateways in Essex. DP World, the owner of P&O Ferries, announced its much-anticipated £1bn plan to make London Gateway "Britain's largest container port" on Monday. Shortly afterwards, The Department for Transport (DfT) said £1.1bn would be spent on an expansion project at London Stansted Airport. It was also announced at the International Investment Summit earlier that London Stansted Airport would benefit from a GBP1.1b expansion programme. The plans were approved in October 2023 but had been subject to confirmation of funding. Blueprints released by the DfT showed up to 5,000 new on-site jobs would be created as a result of the scheme. About GBP600m of the money will be spent on extending the existing terminal, which will increase its size by a third, while the airport works to offer more airlines. Airport CE Ken O'Toole said the expansion would connect people in London and the East of England to "even more global destinations". He said it would enable "millions more visitors to the UK". Haigh added: "This announcement is a clear signal that Britain is open for business. Transport is central to this government's core mission of growing the economy."<br/>
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Boeing will send 60-day notices in mid-November to staff being made redundant as part of a plan announced last week to cut 17,000 jobs at the debt-laden planemaker, an engineering union spokesperson and one industry source said on Monday. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications, which give workers 60 days notice prior to ending their employment, will be issued to thousands of employees in Boeing’s commercial aviation division, who will then leave the company in mid-January, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.<br/>
U.S. Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su flew to Seattle on Monday to try to ease a strike by Boeing factory workers, as thousands of employees face layoffs and a major airline reacted with alarm to the planemaker's deepening turmoil. Su's first in-person intervention, reported by Reuters and confirmed by the Labor Department, comes days after Boeing - dealing with a crippling strike now in its fifth week - unveiled plans to cut 17,000 jobs and take $5b in charges, continuing a year of tumult for the company. "Acting Secretary Su is meeting with both parties today to assess the situation and encourage both parties to move forward in the bargaining process," a spokesperson said. While Su has previously spoken with Boeing and the union, it is her first time in Seattle meeting both sides in person, the spokesperson said. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said its lead negotiator, Jon Holden, had updated Su on the current talks, "stressing the Union’s commitment to a negotiated contract that values our members' skills and dedication."<br/>
It’s been just over a month since more than 30,000 Boeing machinists walked off the job after overwhelmingly voting down a tentative contract. Costs and tensions have only risen since then. The strike is adding to pressure on Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who was brought in over the summer to solve the plane maker’s various troubles. The strike, which S&P Global Ratings estimates costs Boeing more than $1b a month, bookends an already difficult year that started with a near-catastrophic blowout of a 737 Max door plug and comes six years after the first of two fatal Max crashes put the storied manufacturer in constant crisis mode. The union and company remain at an impasse, and airplane production at factories in the Seattle area and other locations has been idled, depriving Boeing of cash. Boeing last week pulled a sweetened contract offer that the union had rejected, saying it wasn’t negotiated. Boeing officials had been upbeat to airline customers about getting to a deal in the weeks before the original vote, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversations were private. But that optimism didn’t pan out, as workers on Sept. 13 voted 95% against an initial tentative labor deal. “They’ll have to increase their offer. There’s no doubt about that,” said Harry Katz, a professor who studies collective bargaining at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He said one of the union’s demands, a return to a pension plan, is unlikely, however, and estimated the strike could last two to five more weeks. Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su on Monday was set to meet with the two sides “to assess the situation and encourage both parties to move forward in the bargaining process,” a spokeswoman for the Labor Department said.<br/>