While two NASA astronauts are still stuck at work due to problems with a Boeing spacecraft, thousands of the company’s factory workers walked off the job yesterday. Boeingites chose to strike after overwhelmingly rejecting an agreement negotiated on their behalf by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, a union representing 33,000 of the planemaker’s employees, 96% of whom voted to hit the picket line.

Production is now halted at Boeing’s West Coast factories, including the Seattle-area facility that churns out its bestselling 737 Max planes. This comes as the company is trying to ramp up production and clean up the fallout from the infamous Alaska Airlines gaping-hole-in-the-plane debacle earlier this year that involved a 737 Max 9.

With the potential to reverberate throughout the economy, the massive work stoppage is yet another fire Boeing has to put out.

Why the strike got liftoff

Though Boeing committed to a record pay increase of 25% over four years and promised to build its next plane at unionized Washington facilities, workers still felt shortchanged.

• They argued it wasn’t enough to make up for an absence of contractual pay bumps since 2008, when the last union deal was negotiated following a strike.
• Wages in the aerospace industry grew 12% between 2018 and 2023, while dropping 6% at Boeing during the same period, per Melius Research.

Bigger than Boeing

A 50-day strike (like the last one) could cost Boeing at least $3 billion, TD Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr told the New York Times, just as the company is trying to shore up its debt-saddled finances. That could further destabilize the embattled American aircraft manufacturer, which props up regional economies by employing 150,000 people across the US and giving business to a vast network of suppliers.

Looking ahead…Both sides said that they’re heading back to the negotiating table to get a contract inked ASAP.—SK

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The Biden administration may not kill the US Steel deal…yet. Reports of the death of Japanese company Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion agreement to buy American stalwart US Steel may have been greatly exaggerated, at least for now. Facing criticism over reports that it planned to block the sale, the Biden administration will likely delay its decision on whether to prohibit the deal on national security grounds until after the presidential election, insiders told the New York Times. The deal has been swept up in politics, although President Biden and each of the candidates competing to be his successor agree it should be stopped. Meanwhile, the companies are still fighting for it: They sent Biden a letter over the weekend and met with officials to keep it alive.

Boar’s Head will shut down the plant involved in a deadly listeria outbreak. The cold cut maker said it’s indefinitely closing the Jarratt, Va. plant linked to an outbreak of listeria that has killed nine people and sickened at least 50. The deli staple provider said it will also permanently quit making liverwurst, the product tied to the outbreak. The Virginia plant hasn’t been used since July, when Boar’s Head recalled 7 million pounds of meat, and regulators found a slew of food safety violations.

The Murdoch family’s succession fight will stay secret. If you want to watch a bruising succession battle among members of a family that run a media empire, you’re going to have to do it via reruns on Max, because a Nevada judge has ruled that Rupert Murdoch can let his play out behind closed doors. The judge rejected a petition from major news networks to make court documents public and to allow coverage of a trial that begins Monday over the 93-year-old mogul’s efforts to alter the irrevocable family trust that governs control of his businesses. It’s all hush-hush (obviously) but Murdoch is reportedly trying to give power to his son Lachlan Murdoch against the wishes of some of his other children.

Your $4 one-piece might incur a few more bumps on its route to your mailbox. The Biden Administration proposed new rules yesterday that would force fast fashion retailers like Shein and Temu to pay tariffs on their products for the first time, squashing what the administration claims is “overuse and abuse” of an import tax loophole.

That loophole is the de minimis rule, which since the 1930s has allowed tax exemptions so that low-cost imports (as of 2015, that means anything under $800) can pass through customs without friction or fees. But critics say cheap Chinese retailers that ship items directly from factories to customers have abused the provision to skirt border inspections and taxes, ultimately undercutting American-made products.

• A decade ago, 140 million packages entered the US every year under the de minimis rule, but that number has jumped to over a billion a year, according to the administration.
• The administration says it wants to decrease the number of packages entering the country with these exemptions.

Temu and Shein seem unbothered. But investors weren't so sanguine. Stocks of US e-commerce brands like Etsy and Wayfair jumped over 5% after Biden’s announcement, while PDD Holdings (Temu’s parent company) dropped more than 3%.—MM

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We finally know what it costs for people to professionally elbow each other inside of the big ball: about $20 million. That’s how much the UFC has paid to put on the Las Vegas Sphere’s first live sports event tonight.

That’s 8 to 10x what UFC usually spends on a night of matches, per Bloomberg. But CEO Dana White is expecting to make it back with a record $22 million in ticket sales. Fans have been buying resale tix to the Noche UFC event for about $1,700 on average—and only partially to see the fighters:

• The Sphere’s display will show animations of birds, clouds, and fire, as well as a six-part film celebrating Mexican culture—the focus of Noche UFC—between matches.
• Some nosebleeds are in higher demand than seats closer to the ring because they have a fuller view of the arena’s screen, Front Office Sports reported.
• Half of the seats have haptic tech that vibrates in response to smackdowns.

This is thanks to Tom Brady and a mistake. When the former NFL superstar brought White to see U2 at the Sphere last year, White called a UFC VP from the concert to say they had to host an event there. Luckily, UFC’s exclusive venue partner, MGM’s T-Mobile Arena, made a scheduling error that granted UFC a hall pass for Noche—but that also means it’s likely one-and-done at the Sphere.—ML

Even the king can’t avoid inflation: The price of the bearskin caps that top off the uniform of the famous Buckingham Palace guards has gone up. The cost of the caps, which are fashioned from black bear fur, jumped 30% in 2023 to £2,040 (~$2,682 at today’s exchange rate) per cap, according to the BBC. The ceremonial chapeaus have cost the UK government more than £1 million over the past decade, and now animal rights group PETA, which opposes wearing fur, is arguing that this is also a financial problem. The Ministry of Defence said that it’s open to exploring faux fur alternatives, but so far none of them have met the “safety and durability” requirements for sitting atop the guards’ heads.