Business week in pictures

Staff at a Coca-Cola factory went on strike in a row over pay. Unite has said the stoppage at the plant in Edmonton, north London, will lead to millions fewer bottles of Coke being produced this month. The union warned that the dispute could escalate unless the company increases a 2% pay offer Photograph: Jacky Naegelen/Reuters

The US city of Milwaukee breathed a sigh of relief after a knife-edge vote by unions averted a threat by Harley-Davidson to roar out of town, a move that would have taken the motorcycle manufacturer out of its spiritual home of 107 years' standing Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

A senior Ryanair pilot proposed a novel way for the budget carrier to save even more money: replace the chief executive Michael O'Leary with a low-paid cabin crew member Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images

The John Lewis Partnership has bounced back from the recession by reporting strong sales and earnings growth at its department stores and Waitrose supermarket chain Photograph: David Pearson/Rex Features

High street chain Next has ruled out a 'meltdown' on the high street but warned that it expects to see very little growth in total consumer spending for the foreseeable future Photograph: Linda Nylind for The Guardian

Fresh evidence of a slowdown in the economy emerged when official data for high street spending last month showed the first drop since January Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

A security guard stands on duty outside the Bank of China building in Beijing. Banks will be forced to hold much more capital to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis, following a deal hammered out over the weekend. Central bank governors and regulators from around the world agreed to the new Basel III rules after a meeting in Switzerland Photograph: Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images

The dollar rose sharply on the foreign exchanges after the Bank of Japan took unilateral action to halt the rise in the value of the yen. Fearful that a rising currency would damage the country's export-led recovery plan, Tokyo took the financial markets by surprise with its first bout of intervention in six years Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

The UK offices of Mercedes-Benz have been raided by competition authorities as part of a criminal investigation into alleged price fixing in the commercial vehicle market Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, expressed his anger at bank bonuses and pay and declared that banks should 'never again' be allowed to get into a state where they damage the prospect of recovery. In a well received speech to the TUC in Manchester, King sympathised with delegates and the wider public at their anger at the bonus culture that still pervades the banking sector Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

A hard-hitting US television commercial bankrolled by a Washington-based medical group has infuriated McDonald's by taking an unusually direct shot at the world's biggest fast-food chain this week, using a scene filmed in a mortuary followed by a shot of the brand's golden arches logo and a strapline declaring: 'I was lovin' it.' Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Poggy fish lie dead stuck in oil in Bay Jimmy near Port Sulpher, Louisiana. BP is determined to press ahead with plans to drill deepwater wells west of the Shetlands despite criticism of its 'outrageous' attitude to the risks of drilling in the US and worries about its North Sea safety record. The optimism about its chances of drilling the North Uist prospect at water depths of 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) – similar to that in the Gulf of Mexico – was spelled out as BP came under attack from MPs on the Commons energy and climate change committee Photograph: Sean Gardner/Reuters

It has been dubbed 'the devil's candy' by critics. A ubiquitous sweetening ingredient known in the US as high fructose corn syrup could get a branding makeover under a plan by food companies to make it sound more appetising. Mixed into thousands of drinks and snacks to appeal to sweet toothed customers, the syrup has been the butt of attacks by anti-obesity campaigners including the first lady, Michelle Obama, who avoids giving products containing the ingredient to her daughters Photograph: AP