Boeing Co’s biggest labor union on Wednesday ratified a four-year contract extension, ensuring the upcoming version of the planemaker’s best-selling 737 narrowbody will be built in Washington state and likely ending Boeing’s high-profile dispute with the National Labor Relations Board.

The International Association of Machinists (IAM) said 74 percent of the vote was in favor of the deal. About 31,000 members were eligible to vote.

“Today our members cast their vote for jobs, for their futures, for the future of this community and for the future of Washington state,” said Tom Wroblewski, president of IAM District 751, in a press conference announcing the results.

The deal gives Boeing some assurance that strikes will not disrupt its operations as it ramps up production of many of its models. For the union members in Washington, ratification also means local jobs for which it has campaigned. A tentative deal was reached last week, nine months before the expiration of the current contract.

Protesters are occupying Wall Street and points beyond, and many investors may be looking sadly at their most recent statements after a couple of erratic months in the markets.

But a new survey finds that most Wall Street professionals are still expecting their bonuses to be the same or higher than last year.

The survey of nearly 1,100 Wall Street professionals, conducted in the last few weeks by the jobs website eFinancial Careers, found that about six in 10 financial services professionals expect their bonus will be the same or higher than last year.

No need to get your eyes checked. AIG just reported a huge profit.

In a sight many of us never thought we’d see, the bailed-out insurer AIG (AIG) returned to the black Thursday, posting an $11 billion profit for the fourth quarter of 2010 and $10 billion in earnings for the full year.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — In an effort to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, the Obama administration has proposed a plan that would put up to $7,500 directly in the hands of car buyers without having them jump through any tax hoops.

Plug-in car advocates love the idea but dealers aren’t so sure about it.

When Hewlett-Packard’s Chief Executive Mark Hurd resigned last month he received something few regular workers see when they quit their jobs under a cloud: A massive payout.

Turns out Hurd is far from the only top executive to be rewarded with a rich package despite a management performance that could be considered less than optimal — especially by rank-and-file workers.

NEW YORK – BP PLC will pay shareholders $2.63 billion in dividends on June 21 as investors and U.S. lawmakers wait to see what the oil company decides about future payouts.

The company announced the dividend on April 27, one week after a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico exploded and set off the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Lawmakers have urged the company to postpone its dividend for the second quarter. BP hasn’t announced plans yet for future dividends.

Holders of ordinary shares will receive 14 cents. Holders of American depositary shares get 84 cents. Each ADS represents 6 ordinary shares.

Yet few batted an eye this week when Wall Street revealed its latest round of pay excess. Giant Wall Street banks set aside $39.2 billion to pay their workers in the first quarter.

That’s up 9% from a year ago, driven in part by a return to bubble-era profit levels.

The gains came even as the staff at the big six banks — Citigroup, Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley and Goldman — shrank by 2%.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The government’s plan to tax Wall Street’s bonus bounty is shaping up to be nothing more than a pipe dream.

Hoping to ride the wave of populist outrage against financial firms like Goldman Sachs, lawmakers have been hard at work hatching legislative schemes aimed at reining in bonuses at firms that received billions of dollars in taxpayer aid.

Full Story at money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Goldman Sachs stunned many in the Wall Street community Friday by awarding chief executive Lloyd Blankfein $9 million as his year-end bonus, far less than many were anticipating, and none of it in cash.

Following weeks of speculation about what the top executive at Wall Street’s leading investment bank would take home as his discretionary pay for 2009, the company revealed in a securities filing it was paying Blankfein 58,381 shares of company restricted stock.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon will take home a nearly $16 million bonus in restricted stock and options for leading the bank to a big profit last year.

In a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, the New York City-based bank said Dimon would collect nearly 200,000 shares of restricted stock and more than a half million in options.

NEW YORK – JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Friday announced a record $9.3 billion payday for its investment-banking employees, setting the stage for competitors like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to also make eye-popping payouts.

On a per employee basis, JPMorgan investment bankers, sales staff and traders, on average, are set to make about $379,000 for 2009, up more than $100,000 from 2008, when the broader financial sector was mired in crisis.

NEW YORK (Fortune) — The odds aren’t on its side, but a bonus tax could happen in the United States too.

The United Kingdom this week slapped a 50% tax on bankers’ bonuses above about $40,000. The one-time tax will be paid by all banks with employees in the country. France pledged it would adopt the same policy, while Germany’s chancellor called the idea “charming.”

Still, the bonus tax seems like a long shot on this side of the Atlantic, where bankers wield immense power. But when Wall Street starts handing out giant year-end paychecks at a time of 10% unemployment, all the campaign donations in the world may not keep legislators facing tough re-election fights from turning on their banker chums.