The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 21

The Indianapolis Star SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1988 BUSINESS B-7 low 10-year briefly I Unemployment rate hits INDIANA Unemployment rate 1968-1988 The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that the civilian unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest point in almost 14 years. Here's a history of American unemployment rates of the last 20 years. Hoosier jobless rate falls to 5.3 in March Analysts fear rise in inflation HDec. 1982 12 Percent of civilian non-farm labor force FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS NEW CONTRACT The Communications Workers of America has accepted a new contract with GTE North's Indiana Operations, giving its 1,300 members a 7 percent wage hike over the next three years. The communications 10 ft -it rvjn jn.

1974 A Tiv Apr. 19881 I 5.4 1 8 May 1969 3.4 UNEMPLOYMENT RATES UnadjustadSaasonally Adjust) March February U.S 5.V 5.4 4.1 5.7 Indiana 5.1 5.3 4.35.5 Andtrson 4.4 4.0 7.7 4.4 Bloomington 3.4 3.4 4.0 14 Elkhart 4.1 4.4 4.5 4.1 Evantvillt 4.W 4.5 7.3 4.3 Fort Waynt 4.1 4.5 5.1 4.5 NWRtgion 7.57.0 7. 7.1 Indianapolis 4.4 4.3 5.0 4.4 Lafayttlt 3.3 1 14 10 Munclt 4.3 5.t 7.1 5. South Bond 5.04.4 5.34.7 Ttrrt Hauta 4.W 5. 7.1 5.1 Now Albany 5.44.7 4.0 4.1 2 70 ,75, '80 '85 '88 1 i SOURCE: Buiaw ti Labor Sttto By ELAINE S.

POVICH CHICAGO TRIBUNE Washington The nation's unemployment rate fell in April to 5.4 percent, the lowest level since June 1974, pleasing some economists and President Reagan but raising fears of inflation and higher interest rates in the near future. Several economists predicted the Federal Reserve Board, trying to hedge against inflation, would allow interest rates to rise slowly during the next few months. Politically, the low unemployment rate was a plus for Republicans, because it is another sign that the economy under Reagan is still healthy. But the forecasts of higher inflation could be read as a boost for Democrats. The Labor Department reported Friday that about 6.6 million people were unemployed in April, almost 200.000 fewer than in March.

Most of the reduction came among adult men. firms also agreed to increase workers' benefits package. RUTH SUIT Two daughters of baseball legend Babe Ruth have Joined an Indianapolis firm to file a lawsuit charging the MacMillan Publishing Co. with illegally using photographs of the "Sultan of Swat" in a 1988 calendar. The suit, filed in federal court in New York, charged the publishing giant with using photographs of Ruth on the cover and inside pages of 'The 1988 MacMillan Baseball Engagement Calendar." "The family insists on controlling the use of Babe Ruth's name, likeness and image," said Bob Berry, a spokesman for Curtis Management Group, the Indianapolis company that represents the estate of the former New York Yankee slugger.

More Hoosiers were working in March, and they were working more, according to the latest employment statistics from the Indiana Department of Employment and Training Services. Indiana's unemployment rate, after seasonal adjustments, fell to 5.3 percent in March, from 5.5 percent in February. At the same time, the number of people on payrolls in the state rose by 20,200 to 2.34 million. A lot of those people were putting in overtime, especially In heavy manufacturing, where the average number of hours worked a week was 42 in March, up from 41.1 in February. The jobless figures likely will look even better when the April numbers are reported next month, said John J.

Carter, director of the Bureau of Business Research at Ball State University. Carter based his prediction on April figures for two neighboring states that were released Friday. The unemployment rate in Michigan fell nearly a percentage point to 7.4 percent, and in Ohio by 1.4 percentage points to 6.3 percent. "If they got that much improvement. Indiana probably did them better," Carter said.

"Our figure is probably going to be less than 5 percent in April." Indiana's employment statistics are released a month later than those for the nation and the 10 largest states. The monthly trends for Indiana's metropolitan areas were mixed, but Carter noted that a remarkably low 2.9 percent unemployment rate was reported for the Lafayette metropolitan area. In the Indianapolis area, the rate fell to 4.3 percent from 4.4 percent in February. Although Indiana's employment levels normally rise in March over February, the figures released Friday also showed significant gains over March of last year. Manufacturing employment rose by 18,500 jobs to 623,400, while non-manufacturing employment continued to jump, rising by 82,500 jobs over the year to 1.717 million.

ROBERTSON ADAMSKnight-RkMw Graphic Network eighth of a point increments. Reagan, in a brief statement at a Cabinet meeting, said he was heartened by the employment statistics. "Our economy continues to grow at a moderate pace, and inflation is under control," he said. White House spokesman Mar-lln Fitzwater added that inflation has "been low and stayed under control for years." The Jobless rate was down 0.2 of a percentage point from March. The Labor Department said 174,000 non-farm Jobs were added to the economy in April and that the median amount of time spent on the unemployment rolls fell to 5.6 weeks, a decline of a week to the lowest level since early 1980.

tion, the prime interest rate was hovering around 1 1 percent. The prime rate Friday was 8.5 percent. David Wyss, chief economist at Data Resources, a Massachusetts forecasting firm, said that as employment rises, unions become stronger and negotiate higher wages. Other workers' salaries rise to keep pace, and an inflation cycle can be set off. "If wages go up, prices go up, and with the higher inflation rate, the Fed has to raise interest rates," Wyss said.

"This seems consistent with the Fed turning the screws about an eighth of a turn," he added, saying he expects interest rates to begin creeping up by one- NATION Women and minorities registered about the same employment level as in March. The last time the unemployment figure was this low, in June 1974. during the waning weeks of the Nixon administra- BALLOTING ENDS Balloting ended Friday in a proxy battle that will determine the outcome of Irving Bank bitter fight against Bank of New York hostile $1.08 billion takeover bid. Irving Chairman Joseph Rice, at the company's annual meeting, said the votes would be counted and the results announced Gas Turbine joins venture with W. German firm An aviation expert with Avia day of propeller-driven planes small-sized airliners because state-owned airlines are being deregulated and passenger traffic likely will increase.

Likewise, he said there are fewer and fewer U.S. carriers, meaning that opportunities lie elsewhere. "The world market becomes the big playing field," Carey said. Turbo-propfans are enhanced versions of the propeller-driven engines that powered every airplane before the advent of jets. They're prized because they consume only about 70 percent as much fuel as jets but until recently were unable to deliver the speed and heavy payload of a jet engine.

is developing a turbo-propfan engine for the U.S. military at its plant on South Tibbs Avenue. Company spokesman William C. Campbell said it is hoped that knowledge gathered from the military project can be applied to commercial aircraft orders with Messerschmidti "These are important products to Allison because the products we make today are not going to be in production forever," Campbell said of efforts to enhance the plant's future. Allison Gas Turbine is a major maker of aircraft engines but has been out of the commercial airplane market since the hey tion Week Space Technology, an industry trade publication, said airplane engine makers have done much in recent years to cut noise and vibrations from turbo-propfan engines and improve them technologically.

Campbell said that for competitive reasons Allison Gas Turbine would not divulge how many people or how much money it has committed to MPC75, as the Messerschmidt project is known. Several other companies, the largest of which is General Electric are working on similar types of engines and it is possible that in the near future propellers could again be part of commercial airliners. By S.P. DINNEN STAR STAFF WRITER Allison Gas Turbine, trying to parlay a military contract into orders for commercial aircraft, has joined a West German aerospace firm to review the potential of building a new passenger plane. Executives of the General Motors Corp.

division have signed what they call a "memorandum of understanding" to work on an engine project with Messersch-midt-Bolkow-Blohm. Allison will research the feasibility of supplying an engine to a 75-passen-ger aircraft that Messerschmidt plans to build. Allison Gas Turbine currently ended. Likewise Messerschmidt, noted for a line of World War II German fighter planes, has not built an airliner in recent years. It does, however, supply components to several European plane-makers.

Messerschmidt and Allison Gas Turbine plan to concentrate on marketing their idea to European air carriers, Campbell said. If that's the case, James S. Carey, a vice president at Airline Economics a Washington air industry consulting firm, said it was wise of Allison to Join Messerschmidt. Europe, Carey noted, may develop into a strong market for by May 24, when the meeting would reconvene. CHARGES FILED The federal government charged E.F.

Hutton Co. Inc. in connection with an alleged money-laundering scheme that helped organized crime figures and businessmen conceal at least $532,000 from the Internal Revenue Service. Hutton was expected to plead guilty to three felony counts of conspiracy and money laundering, U.S. Attorney Lincoln C.

Almond said in Providence, R.I. ALLIED CHIEF RESIGNS Allied Stores Corp. President Robert H. Morosky who was expected to head Federated Department Stores Inc. after its merger with Campeau Corp.

resigned suddenly Friday. Campeau announced in a statement late Friday that Morosky had agreed to resign and that Campeau Chairman Robert Campeau would serve as chairman of both Allied and Federated for the foreseeable Council Eastern files suit against unions, accuses them of 'bashing' airline approves Chrysler agreement future. DEBT GROWS Americans took out $4.46 billion more In Installment credit than they paid off in March, the fourth consecutive strong monthly in-rrpase. the government said UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL mentum on the side of employees. "It's clear evidence of a last-ditch effort by a very desperate man.

and that man's Frank, Lorenzo." he said of Texas Air's chairman. The suit is "a typical gesture on his (Lorenzo's) part, to blame others for his problems," Bryan said. ALPA, the IAM and Eastern's Transport Worker Union tried to buy the carrier before Texas Air bought it in 1986 for $676 million, a sale they then tried to block. The suit says the two unions still hope to obtain Eastern, which has lost $900 million in the past 10 years. "They seek this by an all-out effort to injure' Eastern's business to make it a financial millstone for Texas Air by means of mall fraud, wire fraud, extortion Further, they have set out to destroy Eastern's good will and reputation," the suit says.

on revenues of $2 billion for the same period a year ago. Eastern had a $31 million loss for the first quarter, compared with net income of $2.1 million in the same period in 1987. Eastern's ALPA chairman, John Bavis, among those named Individually in the suit, brushed it off as a company tactic to divert attention from a U.S. Department of Transportation probe of the carriers' finances and safety. "This is like the lions suing the Christians for animal abuse.

The situation at Eastern today has been called the corporate version of the battered child syndrome with the company being mugged by its own parent, Texas Air." Bavis said. Machinist local President Charles Bryan said in Atlanta that the lawsuit was an effort to shift public opinion, which he claimed had been gaining mo ASSOCIATED PRESS Miami Eastern Airlines sued two of its unions for $1.5 billion Friday, accusing its pilots and machinists of "Eastern bashing" to drive down the carrier's value so they could buy it cheaply on the stock market. In the latest of a series of court battles with labor, Miami-based Eastern and parent company Texas Air Corp. allege the International Association of Machinists and the Air Line Pilots Association "have campaigned to smear" them. "The smear campaign Is one of a number of tactics to facilitate a takeover," airline attorney Parker Folse III of Houston said of the suit filed in U.S.

District Court here. Also Friday, Texas Air reported a $124.3 million loss for the first three months of 1988 on revenues of $2.1 billion, as compared to a loss of $101 million Friday in a report that provided more evidence or strong consumer spending. The March gain in consumer debt was down from a $5.04 billion Increase in February, but still represented an annual rate of gain of 8.6 percent, the Federal Reserve said. SALES TO ISRAEL HALTED A California tear gas manufacturer said it no longer will sell Its product to Israel following complaints from Arab-Americans and human rights activists that the gas has been misused, deaths and injuries. Burl Alison, a vice president of TransTechnology in Sherman Oaks, said the comDanv's board of direc Dearborn, Mich.

The United Auto Workers' UAW-Chrysler council approved a new 28-month labor agreement Friday, establishing full parity among, workers at the nation's Big Three carmakers for the first time in nearly a decade. The 190-member council met for nearly six hours Friday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel In Dearborn before approving the pact on a voice vote. The agreement, reached late Wednesday after more than two weeks of bargaining, now must be ratified by Chrysler's approximately 66,000 workers in a vote next Wednesday. UAW President Owen Bieber told the council that the contract marked "another giant step," adding that "I truly believe that it will make the union much stronger when we go to the bargaining table in 1990." The council meeting ran long Crash panel criticizes turf battles UAW President Owen Bieber says the new contract will help the union. bargaining session that wore on for nearly 36 hours as negotiators tried to balance higher costs of health care and pension programs against a sweeping Job-security program.

The accord, which puts Chrysler workers fully on par with their counterparts at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor is set to expire along with the GM and Ford agreements. It would be the first coordinated expiration since 1979, after Chrysler's flirt with bankruptcy forced concessions from the union and put it out of pattern with the other automakers. The tentative contract also marks the first time Chrysler and the union have negotiated a national contract without the pressure of a strike deadline. Analysts said the contract, although fair, would be expensive for Chrysler and put more pressure on it to contain costs in other areas to remaining competitive with Its larger rivals.

The typical Chrysler worker already earns $14.43 an hour including cost-of-living benefits, compared with $14.29 at GM and $14.30 at Ford. Chrysler workers, therefore, will forego cost-of-living increases until wages at GM and Ford catch up to the Chrysler pay level. At the end of the agreement, Chrysler assemblers will earn $15.73. tors agreed Thursday with the decision to stop selling to Israel for the time being. WORLD JUDGE CRITICIZED Union Carbide Corp.

urged the Indian judge hearing the Bhopal gas disaster case to disqualify himself, accusing him of bias in an "arbitrary" and "perverse" order that the company pay $270 million in interim relief to victims. Fall Nariman, the attorney for the U.S.-based multinational corporation, leveled the charge against Bhopal District Judge M.W. Deo in a petition. In his petition, Nariman said Deo's Interim relief order "was not only without jurisdiction, but wholly arbitrary, perverse and displays a complete prejudgment and Proxmire, which would create a coordinating body chaired by the head of the Federal Reserve Board. The Brady panel's statement warned that "it would be a mistake to abandon the development of appropriate legislation." Two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said It appeared that the working group was making progress toward an agreement on coordinated "clr- cuit breakers," which would halt trading when markets take an extreme dive or climb.

However, the sources said there was less agreement on coordinating margins, which set the amount of money required to make an investment in either the futures or stock market. Al- though the margins work differently in each market, they currently are lower in the futures markets. three days after Brady met with a Reagan administration working group that is formulating specific suggestions for reforming the markets. That panel, headed by Treasury Undersecretary George Gould and comprising the chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board, Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is due to report to President Reagan later this month. According to sources familiar with the group's work, it is unlikely to go along with the Brady panel's recommendation that the Federal Reserve or a coordinating committee of regulators should get authority to coordinate stock trading and stock index futures trading.

Brady is backing legislation sponsored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman William ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington The presidential task force appointed last fall to study the October stock market crash says progress toward reforming the market should not be sidetracked by turf battles among federal regulators. A statement released Thursday by the New York office of Nicholas F. Brady, a Wall Street investment banker who headed the presidential panel, said the "flaws in the mechanisms that govern our equity markets are still in place and must be addressed." The statement said debate about market reform "has concentrated on who should oversee the needed changes." rather than on what should be reformed, on which the statement said "there is much more agreement." The statement was released er than expected because of lingering opposition by some union locals to provisions in the contract agreement allowing Chrysler to proceed with plans to sell or close four plants in its Acus-tar parts division within 16 months. Under the tentative contract, Chrysler workers will receive a one-time signing bonus of $1,000 paid by Chrysler. Chrysler workers each were paid a $2,120 signing bonus when they agreed to the current contract in 1985.

The up-front bonus, the union hinted, would make up for the lack of a lucrative profit-sharing payout this year based on Chrysler's 1987 profits of $1.3 billion. The new agreement, covering workers at 46 facilities nationwide, was reached after a final.