The Times Leader from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania • 25

The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre. PA, Friday, July 23, 1999 1 DOW JONES AMEX MARKEtX NASDAQ COMPOSITE Volume Advanced 1,509 rWlliwul 9 in 1,038,621,80 Unchanged 1,264 Total Issue 5,088 New Highs 65 New Lows 44 HOW TO REACH US: Business Editor Pamela C. Turfa Phone: 829-7177 e-mail: pamtleader.net or write us at: 15 N. Main St. Wilkes-Barre, PA 1871 1-0250 Inside: More business news and The Bottom Line.

Volume Advance 1,106 77fl 71 Afi( Decllnd 1'811 I 10,1 Unchanged 617 Totallssues 3,534 New Highs 42 New Low 61 Volume Advanced 195 Declined 317 Unchanged 179 Total Issue 691 NewHIgha 12 New Lows 11 BUSOTESS Union: Fool company insincere in talks Workers at Muskin of Wilkes-Barre would have taken pay cuts to keep their jobs, but management was committed to moving, a union official says. By CHRIS JOHNSON Times Leader Staff Writer WILKES-BARRE Muskin Leisure Products Inc. officials had no intention of negotiating a new contract with union employees during recent negotiations, a union official said Thursday. Ken Monroe, president of Lo Monroe said. Parent was In Savannah on Thursday and could not be reached for comment The average salary for union laborers is $11.39 an hour at Muskin, a manufacturer of above-ground swimming pools, filters and other accessories, Monroe said.

Many of the 240 blue-collar workers are seasonal and are let go during the summer and rehired in the late fall. Muskin employs another 60 or so nonunion administrators and clerical workers. A woman who identified herself as an administrator said the He said he'd pitch the tax breaks available by enrolling in the Keystone Opportunity Zone program. "The grass is not always greener on the other side; that's the kind of message that needs to be delivered," Barrouk said. "It's disheartening, but at the same time, it's happened before.

It's the nature of free enterprise. "We're always hoping that we'll be able to make up for these losses, with the new jobs we'll be able to bring in." Muskin is owned by Paris-based Zodiac Group, which bought it for $8.8 million in 1991. cal 514 of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers, said union members were willing to take pay cuts to keep their jobs, but negotiations were hopeless because company officials already had plans to move the operation. The company no matter what the union did they had made their decision to move and it was a smokescreen, the negotiations." When contract discussions began last month, union representatives were warned that employees would have to take pay cuts or the company would leave town, Monroe said. Executive Vice President and General Manager Jean-Pierre Parent blamed the union's refusal of a new contract when he an nounced Wednesday that Muskin would move its East Thomas Street plant to Savannah, Ga.

Monroe said he and his members are still willing to negotiate. Their contract expires in October, and the last talks were held July 14, he said. Union officials received a letter Monday that the company officially planned to relocate. Employees were notified Tuesday. "The idea is cheaper labor, they want to reduce labor costs," company is trying to finalize plans to buy and expand a factory in Savannah, and it should start moving out of town within the next two months, John Currie, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industry, said his office has not been notified.

By law, companies. with more than 100 employees must notify the state 60 days before a plant closing or face a $500-a-day fine. Stephen Barrouk, president of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, said he hopes to meet with Muskin officials and convince them to stay. Inflation, market worry Fed boss 2 stations not to merge for ad sales J7ie process of gaining federal approval for the move by WYOU and WBRE TV would drain the stations' resources, spokesmen say. By BRIAN YOUNG Times Leader Staff Writer Two television stations that share news operations have dropped their plans to com- 1 Private economists said Alan Greenspan's comments were a lot tougher than they had been expecting.

pecting and greatly increased the likelihood of further Fed rate increases later this year. "I viewed Mr. Greenspan's testimony as a stern lecture to the stock market" said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. "He gave the market a cold shower to try to cool it down." "It would have taken too many resources to respond to Justice Department requests for information," John Dittmeier, vice president and general manager of WYOU-TV said Thursday. Last year, CBS affiliate WYOU and NBC affiliate WBRE entered into a share services Alan Greenspan 's remarks convince some economists that more interest rate hikes could be near.

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON The American economy is enjoying an "exceptional year," Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday. But he warned that inflation dangers could be lurking and he expressed new worries about the high-flying stock mar-ket Delivering the Fed's midyear report to Congress on the state of the economy, Greenspan defended the central bank's recent inv terest rate increase the first in two years and pledged to move "promptly and forcefully" to raise rates again should inflation pressures intensify. Wall Street which had been hitting highs in recent weeks on the belief the Fed would be slow to boost rates further, fell on Greenspan's remarks, with bond prices and stock prices both lower. Private economists said Greenspan's comments were a lot tougher than they had been ex- The Fed on June 30 nudged up agreement The deal allowed them to xover the same news using the same cameramen. wmewmmmmmwm: if i X.I.

i i i V3--- to 5 percent its target for the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, triggering an immediate quarter-point increase in banks' prime lending rate, the benchmark for millions of consumer and small business loans. Wall Street rallied after that rate hike because the Fed immediately announced it was moving its policy directive an indication of future moves from one leaning toward tightening back to neutral. Microsoft announces plans to 'empower' equipment ana Denma-tne-scenes person nel. Viewers see different news presentations on each station. Cost-savings realized in the venture helped WYOU, which was struggling financially.

So earlier this year, the two stations decided to try for additional savings by combining advertising sales. However, in May the Merger Task Force of the Justice Department told the stations it would investigate the filing, Dittmeier said. In a joint statement issued by Dittmeier and his WBRE counterpart, Art Daube, the stations said responding to the government would take away from producing news, programming and serving advertisers. "Continuing the process at this time would have been counter to those goals," the two said. Daube was unavailable for additional comment Dittmeier said the stations studied what a merger of the advertising departments would mean to competition in the market "We talked to advertisers and it would not have had an adverse effect" he said.

"But at this time, again, we decided to withdraw the filing." WYOU is owned by Bastet Broadcasting Inc. while Nexstar Broadcasting Inc. owns WBRE. Dittmeier also announced WYOU was relocating its administrative and sales offices to the Oppenheim Building in Scran ton. An October move is anticipated.

The station won't be going far. The Oppenheim Building is next door to the offices the station occupies at 415 Lackawanna Ave. If the stations had continued pursuing the merger, Dittmeier said WYOU would have moved into office space at the WBRE building in Wilkes-Barre. BizFacts AP PHOTO UPS driver Demetris Mathis in Norcross, says he owns about 100 shares of UPS stock. UPS public stock plan has workers wondering The sale later this year is expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings in history.

By RUSS BYNUM sumer software and the Internet "The environment is more competitive today than I've ever felt in my 19 years at Microsoft," Ballmer said. Ballmer said 81 percent of Microsoft's revenue now comes from selling to businesses, with large corporations accounting for 43 percent of its $19.75 billion in revenues in fiscal 1999. Although Microsoft hopes to build its consumer share and has reorganized that segment in the past year, the consumer audience "is absolutely the smallest percentage of our business," Ballmer added. On other topics, Ballmer said Microsoft considers the Linux operating system to be "serious, if albeit a little crazy" competition to Windows. Linux marks the first time since IBM's OS-2 operating system of the early 1990s "that we have had a serious competitor on the Intel platform," he said.

Intel, which makes a large percentage of the computer chips upon which Windows runs, earlier this year invested in a company that makes computers that run on Linux. Microsoft also demonstrated the latest test version of Windows 2000, the long-delayed successor to the Windows NT operating system for high-powered computers and corporate systems. Microsoft says the new software will be more versatile, reliable and easier to use. Company presiden citing company's broad competitive arena, says old slogan of 'computer on every desk lacked relevance today. By GEORGE TIBBITS AP Business Writer SEATTLE Since the days when Microsoft Corp.

founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen were mere millionaires, the company's vision has been "a computer on every desk and in every home." Now, says Steve Ballmer, wrapping up his first year as Microsoft's president it's time for a change. At Microsoft's annual financial analysts' meeting Thursday, Ballmer said the old slogan, useful in the days when a personal computer was an oddity, had lost its relevance in the era of the Internet and of countless new electronic devices. Instead, Ballmer said, the new vision is: "Empower people through great software anytime, any place and on any device." If that sounds vague, Ballmer said, it's because it reflects the broad number of arenas in which Microsoft must compete: software systems for the largest corporations; applications for small business; a vast array of new desktop, handheld, TV- and cell phone-linked computing devices; con ment UPS workers who own shares of the privately held company. The rest of the stock is held by about 40,000 UPS managers, 17,000 retirees, and members of the founders' families and family foundations. Some employees said they're eager to buy more stock.

Others questioned what pressures might come to bear from shareholders outside the company; Abe Diaz, a UPS accounts administrator in New York, said he's eager to add to his stock holdings "as much as I can." "I'd like to see it really jump through the roof," said Diaz, who has worked 28 years for UPS. "It's always done fairly well. There's no reason it shouldn't continue to do so." Some said they were puzzled by the decision to go public after 92 years. "I'm beginning to wonder, why now?" UPS driver Jackie Grinstead said as she delivered packages to government offices in Louisville, Ky. "It makes you wonder if there's something we don't know." UPS plans to sell 10 percent of its stock, but those shares will represent only 1 percent of the voting rights in the The deal is expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings in U.S.

history, with some estimates of the receipts at more than $3 billion. Associated Press Writer ATLANTA Demetris Mathis doesn't see himself giving up his brown uniform for silk suits any time soon, although the UPS delivery truck driver could be looking at a modest payoff when United Parcel Service starts selling its stock on Wall Street Mathis doesn't own much 100 shares worth about $4,700. But the day after the world's largest package deliverer announced plans to go public, Mathis and thousands of other UPS employees pondered what the news means for them. Even if UPS' stock price takes off when the company goes public later this year, Mathis is planning to hold on to his shares. He said he suspects there won't be many truck drivers reaping a windfall.

"Believe me, it's benefitting UPS and management It's not benefitting hourly Mathis, 30, said Thursday after polishing off lunch at a Burger King. Mathis has been delivering packages for UPS for six months, after spending nearly 11 years as a part-time employee at a distribution center. He is one of about 66,000 nonmanage- iga'lr "'iAiM 1 i SOURCE: National I Restaurant Association.