Evansville Press from Evansville, Indiana • 15

day July 19 1994 Unions lose potent weapon as bargain tactic The labor union strike that has dotted the history of Evansville and other factory towns across the country is becoming a rare bird and without passage of the Striker Replacement Bill could become extinct the feeling of local union leaders who say that what was once one of their most it weapons has all but lost as a bar MEL RUNGE Business Editor gaining table tactic The Striker Re- "IcNeely says company officials have refused to meet with union negotiators since April 19 union leader said the Koch employees some with 30 years on the job worked without a Contract for nearly 2 Vi years because they feared the company would try to hire replacements McNeely contends that without a contract to protect the workers the company made rule changes until the employees were forced into the strike Koch officials decline to comment Roy Mabrey president of the Central Labor Council of Southwest Indiana said union officials have given up on getting any legislation to ban permanent replacements passed this year He said organised labor had two key issues to support this year and that it will now focus on the second one national health care Peter Seybold acting director of the Division of Labor Studies at Indiana University says failure to pass the legislation was not the major blow to organise labor that its opponents labeled it though he agrees that strike has almost been taken away as a tactic for He says that labor did get the bill to Congress which was an improvement over what happened in the Passage of the bill is important to a balance" between labor and management he said However Seybold concludes: labor movement has been declared dead several times before and has always bounced back I think we are seeing a revival of the labor movement in the only at places where workers have skills that can not be readily learned by replacement workers In those cases strikes still can be an effective way to settle a contract McNeely contends Chuck Whobrey president of Teamsters Local 215 agrees that the success of a strike on who striking" Whobrey says chances of the Teamsters winning a strike in the trucking industry are probably better than for unions in many other industries because of the shortage of drivers Trucking firms already can not hire as many drivers as they would like to have he notes However Whobrey contends that strikes been easy for unions to win for years Employers began hiring permanent replacements for strikers after 1980 when President Reagan fired and replaced the air traffic controlers Both the number of labor strikes and size of raises for aU blue collar workers when measured in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars have declined ever since officials report McNeely is now facing a permanent replacement strike situation Local 20 represents the about 30 employees at Koch Originals who went on strike April 20 after working more than two years without a contract McNeely says the union members estimate that the firm which manufactures and markets metal furnishings has since hired about 25 replacement workers The union members suspect they may never get their jobs back placement legislation has swung decidedly in power that favor of management believe itthoyT nanagei their hope for adjusting the balance of The bill that would have prohibited empli ts for from hiring permanent replacements for stayers striking workers died when proponents could not muster enough votes to head of a filibuster Without the legislation only strikes are likely to be successful according to Jack McNeely business representative for Local 20 of the Sheet Metal Workers Union and president of the Evansville Building Trades Council say general strikes have become a thing of the McNeely says He predicts that strikes may be successful Trade deficit widens to $917 billion Associated Press trade barriers among the United States Mexico and Canada Canada US imports set new record high WASHINGTON trade deficit widened sharply to $917 billion in May as the deficit in merchandise jumped to the highest level in more than six years the government said today The Commerce Department reported that the US deficit in goods and services was up 76 percent in May from a revised April imbalance of $853 billion as for the third EYEFUL This crystal preparation readied for experiments at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago is composed of more than 100 trillion protein molecules X-ray crystallography is a technique used by the health care company to develop new medicines Abbott has spent more than $880 million to research and develop the product Players buying own stock Player International Inc one of the firms bidding for an Evansville riverboat casino license announced that it would repurchase up to $20 million of its own common stock The company said it had sufficient funds $838 million in cash and marketable securities as of June 30 to handle its current projects and that the repurchase program would not interfere with its growth stock trades on the Nasdaq Market The price recently has been in the $1775 a share range The company has 176 million shares outstanding The company operates riverboat casinos at Metropolis IU and Lake Charles La and is developing a casino at Mesquite Nev GE reports record earnings Whirlpool sales exceed $2 billion profits jump 13 The Whirlpool Corp of Benton Harbor Mich reported today that sales during the second three months exceeded $2 billion for the first time in the history and that profits for the quarter jumped 13 percent Evansville's largest employer said it earned $84 million or $110 a share for the three months up from $74 million or $104 a share a share in the comparable 1993 quarter A restructuring charge in: volving European operations reduced profits for the recent quarter bV three cents a share It was best ever quarter the company said Whirlpool said that shipments from its North American Appliance Group which includes the Evansville refrigerator plant rose at a double-digit pace The Kitchen-Aid Whirlpool and Roper brands all increased market share straight month appetite for imports set a new record high So far this year the United States has been running an annual deficit in merchandise of $1373 billion the worst showing since an all-time record of $1521 billion set in 1987 For May the overall deficit of $917 billion was the worst since a February imbalance of $961 billion Starting this year the government has been including not only merchandise but also services such as tourism and royalty payments in its monthly trade report The US historically runs surpluses in the services category but they are not enough to wipe out the huge deficits in goods For May the goods surplus was $490 billion while the deficit in goods was $1407 billion The goods deficit was the worst monthly imbalance since October 1987 While the Clinton administration has vowed to open US markets as a way of reducing huge trade imbalances economists maintain that effort will be overwhelmed this year by disparities in global performance with a weaker US currency A weaker dollar makes imports more expensive and US goods more competitive but in the short term it can actually make the trade deficit worse as buying patterns lag behind the currency changes In May the deficit with Japan actually shrank by 199 percent to $439 billion However it was still the largest deficit for any country and figures released by Japan show that the deficit widened again in June trade surplus with Mexico climbed to $353 million last month US exports surged to $438 billion as Mexico surpassed Japan to become America's second largest export market last month That fact is certain to be cited by the Clinton administration as vindication of its hard-fought battle last year to win approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement removing steel and telecommunications equipment also posted big gains mowing trade deficits this year have been one of the factors cited for the weakness in the US dollar which has fallen against the German mark and been pushed to a 50-year low against the Japanese yen Currency markets have battered the greenback on the belief that with the failure of the Clinton administration to achieve more success in lowering trade barriers the only way to correct the US trade gap is Indiana businesses duped by African financial scams Enjoy Your Vacation Associated Prats FAIRFIELD Conn General Electric Co today reported second-quarter profits of $152 billion the highest quarterly earnings in the history and a 14 percent increase over the same period last year The profits for the three months ended June 30 which amounted to 89 cents a share compared with earnings of $133 billion or 78 cents a share in the second quarter last year GE said double-digit gain in eight businesses helped generate revenues of $162 billion a 10 percent increase over the second quarter last year For the first six months of the year General Electric earned $259 billion or $152 per share compared with $242 billion or $141 per share in the same period a year earlier 2 insurance firms pool forces Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS Two Indiana insurance companies will remain separate companies but are pooling their sales forces and other operations American United Life Insurance Co and The State Life Insurance Co will be separate from a legal standpoint but will be governed by one chief executive and common boards of directors yesterday's announcement said Jerry Semler chairman president and chief executive officer of AUL will be CEO of both companies Ford plans plant expansion Associated Press electronically suck it Bartholomy said a tried-but-true adage: If it sounds too good to be true it probably is And this one most certainly he added Businesses often suspect any wrongdoing and are enticed because the returns are often promised to be more than a million dollars Bartholomy said seem to tend to trust other businesses and the fact that it comes from an International business seems to add authority to it he said The US Commerce Department estimates $250 million a year is stolen from US businesses by deals emanating from west Africa Indiana Attorney General Pam Carter said this type of international business fraud is growing as technology increases and the US is behind in stopping such scams While you are relaxing this summer let your Evansville Press carrier save your newspapers for you at no extra charge! Call our Circulation Department and tell us you would like to take advantage of our VACATION PAK FORT WAYNE Ind Scams emanating from Nigeria and other west African nations are preying on Indiana businesses enticed by the prospect of easy money State officials said more than 120 northeast Indiana businesses have been solicited in the scams In a typical scenario a Nigerian group asks a US business for access to its bank account in order to stash some money and promises the US business a cut of the money in return said Tom Bartholomy president of the Northeast- era Indiana Better Business Bureau are of course no funds sitting in any foreign bank accounts waiting on you These people wait until they get your bank account number then they stores to continue despite sale Win a Gas Grill! Drug stores in Indiana are expected to continue operations under the name although they are now owned by Revco DS Inc reports Alan Curtis manager of the in Mount Vernon Meanwhile Revco announced today that it plans to sell 272 of the stores which it acquired last Friday from For sale will be stores in New England Michigan and the Chicago area Revco officials reported They also said that Revco plans to dose about 50 of its remaining 2130 stores though a final New auto rules feature Associated Am INDIANAPOLIS Ford Motor Co has announced plans for $555 million in plant improvements that will result in 75 new jobs The increased hiring and investment will help Ford increase exports of steering components to its European operations The plant will export control valves to a steering gear plant in Wuelfrath German officials said The European demand is for steering gears used in Mondeo Ford sold nearly 90000 Mondeos in the United Kingdom in only its first year in 1993 T-bill rates fall at auction Order a VACATION PAK for at least four days this summer and your name will be entered in the drawing for the gas grill Drawing will be held Monday September 12 1994 ALL VACATION PAKS ordered between June 17 September 11 1994 will be eligible for the drawing WINNER WILL BE NOTIFIED BY PHONE ANDOR MAIL determination of what stores has not been made The $600 million acquisition included 1150 stores Even after the closing and sale of the stores Revco will still be the second-largest drugstore chain behind Rite-Aid actions got the seal of approval from Wall Street yesterday Duff Phelps Credit Rating Co affirmed its BBB-rating for $140 million in senior unsecured notes and removed the company from its Rating Watch 7 it labels ing efforts by foreign-owned manufacturers to depict their vehicles as in But importers who do build some of their cars in the US say the American Automobile Labeling Act will be misleading to consumers Foreign automakers say the labels are deceiving because the value of labor included in the calculations US and Canadian parts arc grouped together and the same part that comes from an Internal supplier could be counted differently if purchased by another manufacturer Another contentious point is that all cars with the same nameplate will be counted the same even if they are built in niore than one country A Toyota Camry built in Japan will have the same statistics as one built in Kentucky The Evansville Press WASHINGTON Consumers confused over the increasingly blurred lines of whether or not a new car is American will get some help in showrooms beginning Oct 1 A new window sticker will list the combined percentage of parts of the vehicle made in the United States or Canada where the engine and transmission were made the name of any nation that supplied more than 15 percent of a vehicle's value and the place of final assembly The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued its final rule yesterday on how manufacturers must calculate the inf Anna tion US automakers hope the label required by i 1992 law will quash advertis- WASHINGTON Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities fell in yeste-day's auction to the lowest level in three weeks The Treasury Department sold $124 billion in three-month bills at an average discount rate of 431 percent down from 450 percent last week Another 124 billion was sold in six-month bills at an average discount rate of 471 percent down from 494 percent The three-month bill rate was the lowest since they sold for 420 percent cn June 27 and the six-month bill rate was the' lowest since they averaged 460 percent the same day.