The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 7

The Commercial Appeal B4 MEMPHIS WEDNESDAY JUNE 14 1995 LABOR CORPORATE Teamsters to suspend local chief Carrington ITT split to spin off interest in its casinos compensation last year included a salary of $71113 and $5160 in allowances according to US Labor Department filings supplied by the international union The international Ethical Practices Committee determined that conduct before a freight Eievance panel in January 1994 vio-ted the constitution and Local 667 bylaws Carrington was to present union grievances which allege a company has violated a contract before the Southern Multi-State Grievance Committee The panel rules on complaints covered by the union's National Master Freight Agreement with major trucking companies The international union said Carrington allowed an representative to present the side as well as the position in three grievances In an attempted coverup the union said Carrington allowed the employer representative to use name when speaking at the recorded proceedings to make it appear on a transcript that Carrington had spoken The union lost the grievances which involved Roadway Express and Churchill Truck Lines an duty to vigorously defend the said Ron Carey Teamsters general president In his defense according to the ethical practices committee report Carrington said the company representative read only the grievances into the record and that his experience in the industry showed he responded to the position when he felt he had a case He said members of the grievance panel should have spoken up at the time if they felt he did something wrong and that he was sick and was trying to save his voice Local 667 is exploring the option of leaving the office vacant while a new one is chosen in elections slated for this year said Cynthia Kain a Teamster spokesman in Washington Officials at the local said only Carrington could comment By Kevin McKenzie Tte Commercial Appeal The Teamsters plan to suspend Jimmy Carrington the president of Memphis Local 667 for six months following the alleged mishandling of grievances the international union announced Tuesday Carrington Local 667 president since 1984 is to be suspended from office without pay beginning at the end of this month The suspension punctuates the end of union career In April he said that after working 35 years in the union he did not intend to run for re-election and planned to retire in January The international union has also permanently barred Carrington from presenting or hearing grievances filed by his members That ban has taken effect Carrington in Chicago could not be reached after several telephone calls to his hotel room As president of the local Car IN BUSINESS First Data becomes top credit processor HACKENSACK NJ First Data Corp said that it has agreed to buy First Financial Management Corp for $665 billion becoming the biggest credit-card processor It leaps forward in the race to provide services to the emerging world of electronic banking The combined company with annual revenue of $4 billion will be electronically linked to most US banks Through those links First Data plans to capitalize on the rapid increase in businesses and consumers that buy electronically First Data also will gain a nearmonopoly on money-wiring through First Western Union Financial Services Inc unit It has 90 Bircent of the world market First MoneyGram unit has much of the rest Business News More leaders back AFL-CIO opposition WASHINGTON The ranks of union leaders backing a slate of opposition candidates for the AFL-CIO's top offices grew to 24 on Tuesday and the challengers claimed enough support to take control of the federation John Sweeney the pick to lead the 133 million-member organization said he wanted to revive organized labor and deliver the help and protection working families desperately need Associated Press Inflation edges up sales lackadaisical WASHINGTON Sluggish sales and a modest rise in inflation last month provide fresh evidence of an economic slowdown that analysts say could lead the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this summer Consumer costs increased 03 percent in May led by the biggest jump in gas prices in nine months Excluding volatile food and energy components the Labor Department said Tuesday that the core rate of its Consumer Price Index edged up 02 percent The Commerce Department report- ed that retail sales after slipping 03 percent in April were up 02 i last month By Skip Wollenberg Tte Associated Press NEW YORK The onetime tessential conglomerate ITT Corp will divide itself into three parts in one of the biggest corporate restructurings ever after flirting with the idea for more than two years The company with $25 billion in sales said Tuesday it plans to spin off to shareholders its Hartford insurance business industrial products operations and a third business that owns the Sheraton hotels and Caesars World casinos This includes the Sheraton Casino in Tunica County Shareholders who would get a share in each new company for each ITT share they own will vote on the plan this fall But tne early reaction on Wall Street was positive ITT was up $625 a share closing at $11550 on the New York Stock Exchange The company said the breakup would give its managers more flexibility in running their businesses and getting access to capital while creating higher share value for stock owners Consumers probably won't see much impact from the breakup in dealing with their Hartford insurance agent checking in at a Sheraton hotel or placing a bet at Caesars World casinos Those names along with Madison Square Garden and tne New York Knicks and Rangers sports teams are ITT's best-known brands But analysts said the breakup may mean investors will examine the individual companies more closely than they have the current business divisions and may discover values unreflected in stock price kind of examination usually bodes well for the stock" said Jack Kelly who follows ITT for Goldman Sachs Co Phua Young analyst for the investment firm Lehman Brothers estimated the three companies are worth a combined total of $125 to $140 a share He says the entertainment and insurance businesses are currently undervalued ITT has acknowledged for more than a year that it was considering a division of the company which got its start in the phone business in the Caribbean in 1920 It became the Siintessential conglomerate via more an 250 acquisitions in the 1960s and 1970s Avis Rent-A-Car Continental Baking Co and Canteen Corp were once in its fold But during the past decade the company has consolidated and fortified its holdings in its three nugor lines of business while shedding other operations including its telephone business and more recently its lending businesses all three of them are financially said Rand Araskog chairman president and chief executive The insurance company which will be known as ITT Hartford earned $852 million on revenue of $111 billion last year The division employs about 20000 The company will be headed by division chairman and CEO Donald Frahm The industrial products company known as ITT Industries generated $418 million in operating income on $76 billion in revenue last year It makes automotive parts defense systems and equipment and industrial pumps employing about 57000 The company will be Hea Engen ITT executive vice president The third company including Sheraton hotelscasinos Caesars World casinos and Madison Square squ Cc Garden will retain the ITT corp name with Araskog as its chairman and chief executive It has about 30000 employees forces with the city said Steve Martir of the Mississippi DECD terms of working together saw this as a perfect marriage Missis sippi has a small international pres ence not Martin said time that we take that next step witl the international market Memphis has automatic name A portion of the Alley" proj ect will include a direct mail advertis ing campaign in which 500 guitai cases filled with brochures compac discs and other knick-knacks will tx distributed to European travel agents The guitar cases which are plas tered with bumper stickers fron across the region are intended to rep resent the tattered cases often cartel around by early blues players Ar cher-Malmo Advertising designed th cases Taking care of interiors Rhea Crenshaw owner of Rhea Crenshaw Interiors gets her shop ready to open in The Parkway Plaza Center on North Germantown Parkway The center designed for 11 businesses Is scheduled to open in July TELEVISION By Tom Walter Tha Commercial Appeal WHBQ-TV Channel 13 will become a Fox network owned and operated station within two weeks The Federal Communications Commission notified the station Monday it has approved the sale Channel 13 an ABC affiliate had notified ABC it is terminating its affiliation agreement as of Dec 1 But Fox is expected to take over the station by the end of June That means Channel 13 could be a Fox-owned station and still broadcast ABC programming until Dec 1 ABC thougn could decide to end the agree- MARKETING By Jim Stearin erally have between 25 and 50 people Fox announced its intention last August to buy Channel 13 from ComCorp of Tennessee which recently had bought the station itself ComCorp paid $43 million for Channel 13 Although terms of purchase disclosed Channel 13 general manager Tim Lynch said Fox paid considerably more than the $65 million Ellis Communications paid for the WMC radio and TV stations For viewers the change will mean confusion Once the affiliation switches are made Fox programming such as The Simpsons The X-Files and Martin will be seen on Channel Please see FOX Page B8 ers who on average spend about two weeks in America to remain in the Mid-South the entire region has to be promoted organizers said But Mississippi and not Arkansas was chosen as the partner because of the longstanding musical ties with Memphis organizers said is the hook here no question about it But Mississip-We want to sell the because the European not going to spend two weeks in said Kevin Kane president of the CVB know that people are going to visit Arkansas But we know that (with) the blues Mississippi made a lot more sense than Arkansas And since Memphis has instant name recognition with many Europeans Mississippi was pleased to join 1 The CPI is up 36 percent at an annual rate for the first five months of this year compared with 27 percent in both 1993 and 1994 Associated Press Yellow Freight plans to trim jobs in Kansas BAXTER SPRINGS Kan Yellow Freight Systems Inc plans to cut workers at its Baxter Springs terminal The consolidation move could put 262 of 330 employees out of work The Baxter Springs distribution center will be consolidated with operations in Memphis St Louis Dallas Oklahoma City and Kansas City Mo spokesman Dana Eisele said Eisele said Yellow Freight has about 550 employees in Memphis and that the Memphis facilities will take on some additional responsibilities as a result of changes in Baxter Springs He said details about gains for the Memphis operation be known until a change of operations hearing is held with the Teamsters union during late July Associated Press UPS schedules earlier delivery in 10 cities ATLANTA United Parcel Service Inc said that starting July 3 it will its early next-day service to 8 am delivery in 10 mqjor metropolitan areas The move comes only nine months after UPS introduced 8:30 am service to major markets More significantly the base price of $40 a letter will not increase The 8 am service will be available in New York Newark NJ Boston Philadelphia Washington Chicago Dallas Los Angeles San FranciscoOakland Atlanta and Orlando Fla don't know if they can force Federal (Express Corp) to match them on this but turning up the said Paul Schlesinger an analyst at Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette Inc Federal Express officials were not available for comment Business News ce WHBQ i ment sooner once it works out an agreement with WPTY-TV Channel 24 ABC will affiliate with Channel 24 the current Fox affiliate ABC senior vice president of affiliate relations Maureen Lesourd said But when that agreement goes into effect still is under discussion Channel 24 general manager Jack Peck said he would prefer switching affiliations Dec 1 or later because planning to add a news department to the station going to take some time to get off the ground and I want to hit the ground running with an early and late Peck said News departments in Memphis gen- the flight was announced we knew we had to do something to promote the said Regena Bearden director of tourism for the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau which joined with the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development for the campaign European travelers done New York seen DC experienced Mickey in Orlando They want to experience real America What better place to do it than right Bearden added Both the CVB and the Mississippi DECD will contribute $750000 to the campaign which is initially targeted at England France the Netherlands and Germany A sales person and a K' ic relations person have already hired to work on the campaign from a base just outside London In order to entice European travel- 4 Miss Memphis join up to pitch culture to Europe By Jody Callahan Tte ComnwcM Appeal In an effort to capitalize on the imminent Memphis-Amsterdam nonstop flights Memphis and Mississippi have organized a joint $15 million marketing campaign to promote the region Dubbed Blues the two-year campaign will target international trade shows travel agents and travel writers to promote the culture both musical and otherwise of the Memphis-Mississippi region to Europe organizers announced at a Beale Street press conference Tuesday The impetus for the project was KLM Royal Dutch scheduled June 27 inaugural Memphis-to-Amsterdam flight and the four weekly flights to follow.