Qataris decide whether to end limited voting for legislative seats in shadow of US election

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Qataris decide whether to end limited voting for legislative seats in shadow of US election

2024-11-05 17:07 Last Updated At：17:11

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar opened a snap poll Tuesday to decide whether to end its limited voting for legislative seats, a measure likely to pass and end its short-lived experiment in electing members of the country’s advisory Shura Council.

Voting began as the world's attention focused on the U.S. presidential election, with even Qatar’s state-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera offering brief acknowledgments of the vote wedged between coverage of the U.S. and the Mideast wars. Though Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, announced last month a vote would take place, it was only Sunday that authorities announced the date of the poll.

Voting will run until 7 p.m. (1600 GMT) and results are expected on Wednesday. All Qatari employees in the country also were granted permission to leave work beginning from 11 a.m. to vote.

Qatar's state news agency described the voting as “an enthusiastic atmosphere and a historic moment, clearly confirming everyone’s keenness to make this national celebration a success.”

The vote will “strengthen the social fabric in the most beautiful image and form, which honestly represents an important stage in the country’s victorious march and its national unity,” the news agency added.

Qatar first introduced plans for legislative elections in its 2003 constitution, but authorities repeatedly postponed implementing the vote. The country finally held elections for two-thirds of the Shura Council, which drafts laws, approves state budgets and advises the ruler, in October 2021.

The elections came after the end of a boycott of Qatar by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that tore the Gulf Arab states apart. It also came about a year ahead of Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, an event that drew intense scrutiny from the West of the country's treatment of foreign laborers and its system of governance.

Qatar remains an important nation to the West as it hosted the Taliban and assisted in the chaotic 2021 NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan and as a mediator as the Israel-Hamas war rages in the Gaza Strip and has expanded to Lebanon.

But the election created problems in the energy-rich nation. Electoral law distinguishes between born and naturalized Qatari citizens and bars the latter from electoral participation. Human Rights Watch described the system as “discriminatory,” excluding thousands of Qataris from running or voting. The disqualifications sparked minor protests that led to several arrests.

In announcing the vote on changing the constitution, Sheikh Tamim said: “The contest between candidates for membership in the Shura Council took place within families and tribes, and there are different views regarding the repercussions of such competition on our norms, traditions, as well as the conventional social institutions and their cohesion.”

“The contest assumes an identity-based character that we are not equipped to handle, with potential complications over time that we would rather avoid," he added.

The vote marks yet another rollback in the hereditarily ruled Gulf Arab states of halting steps to embrace representational rule following efforts by the United States to push harder for democratic reforms in the Middle East after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Hopes for democracy in the region also rose in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.

In May, the ruler of oil-rich Kuwait dissolved his country’s parliament for as much as four years. While the Kuwaiti parliament had struggled, it represented the Gulf Arab state’s most free-wheeling legislative body and could challenge the country’s rulers.

Boeing factory strike ends as workers vote to accept contract

2024-11-05 16:43 Last Updated At：16:50

SEATTLE (AP) — Factory workers at Boeing voted to accept a contract offer and end their strike after more than seven weeks, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to resume production of its bestselling airliner and generate much-needed cash.

Leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district in Seattle said 59% of members who cast ballots agreed to approve the company’s fourth formal offer and the third put to a vote. The deal includes a 38% wage increase over four years, and ratification and productivity bonuses.

However, Boeing refused to meet strikers’ demand to restore a company pension plan that was frozen nearly a decade ago.

The contract’s ratification on the eve of Election Day cleared the way for a major U.S. manufacturer and government contractor to restart Pacific Northwest assembly lines that the walkout idled for 53 days.

Bank of America analysts estimated last month that Boeing was losing about $50 million a day during the now-ended strike, which did not affect a nonunion plant in South Carolina where the company makes 787s.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to employees that he was pleased to have reached an agreement.

“While the past few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team,” Ortberg said. “We will only move forward by listening and working together. There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”

According to the union, the 33,000 workers it represents can return to work as soon as Wednesday or as late as Nov. 12. Ortberg has said it might take “a couple of weeks” to resume production in part because some workers might need retraining.

The average annual pay of Boeing machinists is currently $75,608 and eventually will rise to $119,309 under the new contract, according to the company. The union said the compounded value of the promised pay raise would amount to an increase of more than 43% over the life of the agreement.

“It’s time for us to come together. This is a victory,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden told members while announcing the tally late Monday. “You stood strong and you stood tall and you won.”

Reactions were mixed even among union members who voted to accept the contract.

Although she voted “yes,” Seattle-based calibration specialist Eep Bolaño said the outcome was “most certainly not a victory.” Bolaño said she and her fellow workers made a wise but infuriating choice to accept the offer.

“We were threatened by a company that was crippled, dying, bleeding on the ground, and us as one of the biggest unions in the country couldn't even extract two-thirds of our demands from them. This is humiliating," she said.

For other workers like William Gardiner, a lab lead in calibration services, the revised offer was a cause for celebration.

“I'm extremely pumped over this vote,” said Gardiner, who has worked for Boeing for 13 years. “We didn't fix everything — that's OK. Overall, it's a very positive contract.”

Union leaders had endorsed the latest proposal, saying they thought they had gotten all they could though negotiations and the strike. Along with the wage increase, the new contract gives each worker a $12,000 ratification bonus and retains a performance bonus the company wanted to eliminate.

“It is time for our members to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” the local union district said before the vote. “We believe asking members to stay on strike longer wouldn’t be right as we have achieved so much success.”

President Joe Biden congratulated the machinists and Boeing for coming to an agreement that he said supports fairness in the workplace and improves workers’ ability to retire with dignity. The contract, he said, is important for Boeing’s future as “a critical part of America’s aerospace sector.”

Biden's acting labor secretary, Julie Su, intervened in the negotiations several times, including when Boeing made its latest offer last week.

A continuing strike would have plunged Boeing into further financial peril and uncertainty. Last month, Ortberg announced plans to lay off about 17,000 people and a stock sale to prevent the company’s credit rating from being cut to junk status.

The strike began Sept. 13 with an overwhelming 94.6% rejection of the company's offer to raise pay by 25% over four years — far less than the union’s original demand for 40% wage increases over three years.

Machinists voted down another offer — 35% raises over four years, and still no revival of pensions — on Oct. 23, the same day that Boeing reported a third-quarter loss of more than $6 billion.

The contract rejections reflected bitterness that built up after union concessions and small pay increases over the past decade.

The labor standoff — the first strike by Boeing machinists since an eight-week walkout in 2008 — was the latest setback in a volatile year for the aerospace giant. The 2008 strike lasted eight weeks and cost the company about $100 million daily in deferred revenue. A 1995 strike lasted 10 weeks.

Boeing came under several federal investigations this year after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Federal regulators put limits on Boeing airplane production that they said would last until they felt confident about manufacturing safety at the company.

The door-plug incident renewed concerns about the safety of the 737 Max. Two of the planes had crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. The CEO at the time, whose efforts to fix the company failed, announced in March that he would step down. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday's vote puts Boeing’s future back on more solid footing.

“Washington is home to the world’s most skilled aerospace workers, and they understandably took a stand for the respect and compensation they deserve,” Inslee said in a statement congratulating the workers.

Koenig reported from Dallas and Schoenbaum from Salt Lake City.