Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 22

This morning's business briefing: Wednesday, Oct, 31, 1984 on ions 13 Dow-Jones Industrials 1217.31, 15.90 Prevailing prime rate 12- New fixed-rate mortgages (20 down) 133 Six-month Treasury Bill rate 9.59 Donoghue Money Fund Avg.7-Day Yld. 10. 16 Inflation rate (national) Inflation rate (Detroit) Michigan unemployment rate National unemployment rate Tax-exempt bond index 4.2 4.1 10.9 7.5 10.05 NYSE JB 9B Mil UAL FUNDS DETROIT FREE PRESS 6B Call with business news: 222-8765 Home banking gets its biggest test yet JicEieff guide to fix, say, a leaky faucet Michigan National Corp. Is paying for 1 nltUMink it let nt III bur program in terms of content," said Timothy Lemanski, market development manager for First of America. "The monthly fees are really outweighed when you consider that 100,000 merchants nationwide will accept payments electronically through HBI from the big utilities to Sears to the local doctor or dentist." Participants can also use HBI to get news, weather, travel and stock market information; order merchandise from national retailers and tickets through Ticketron; scan the encyclopedia; play electronic video games and even follow a step-by-step home repair By LINDA BRENNERS-STULBERG Free Press Business Writer First of America Bank the state's fifth-largest bank holding company, has kicked off a home banking pilot program that is part of the most comprehensive test of home banking in North America.

Kalamazoo-based First of America and 1 3 other financial institutions, including Bank of Montreal, are pitching in $9 million for the cooperative, year-long experiment. The banks spent two years designing and developing the program, Home Banking Interchange, or HBI, and will test it in 1,500 households nationwide and in Ontario. First of America recruited 100 households in Ann Arbor, Lansing, Royal Oak and Kalamazoo to participate in the test, which began Oct. 1. The families were provided with a $600 Sceptre videotex terminal to hook up to their TV sets to gain access to HBI programs.

The service will cost the test families $7.50 a month after the first month, which was free. Participants can use the terminals to pay bills, transfer funds between accounts, keep up-to-date on balances and account activity, and send messages to the bank. "BANKING is only about 10 percent of actually testing the system. Two other Detroit-area banks also are testing home banking videotex services. National Bank of Detroit will soon conclude its 90-day experiment of home banking in 100 households.

Manufacturers National Bank is midway through a year-long test of the PRONTO home banking system offered by Chemical Bank of New York. More than 100 Michigan households are using PRONTO, which, among other things, allows them to pay VISA and MasterCard bills. Steady as it goes, says new Ford boss Ford Motor Co. President Donald Petersen, fighting laryngitis, said Tuesday he and his wife, Jody, "broke out a bottle of wine" to celebrate his appointment Monday as the company's new chairman and chief executive officer. "I think when you find out something like this, you're probably most aware of the obligation you're II III imrnw mu ryn-r 'ryMimi JUHHU-M.

H.UMW undertaking in a situation such as this," Petersen said prior to a speech at the Westin Hotel lauding the company's minority-run parts suppliers. "I think (Petersen successor) Red (Poling) and I are very much aware of the responsibilities we -4 will be undertaking come Febru- lJjj, ary and that was primarily the thing on my mind," said Petersen, MOt iirhn urill tolrA Arar trr Chairman vv uv win Mini, uivi ivi vyiiuii mull Petersen phjlip Caldwell when Caldwell retires Feb. 1. "We're a team here at Ford and (in the future), Ford will be steady as we've been, steady as it goes, full speed ahead into the future." Marc'ta Stepanek in Michigan Women making dramatic salary gains, study says SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) Women's salaries are steadily gaining on men's and will jncrease dramatically over the next two decades because of job experience and education rather than political pressure, a Rand Corp.

study said Tuesday. If current trends continue, working women will earn 74 percent of what men do by the year 2000, the study said, calling that a CQn servative estimate. "In 1980, women's hourly wages were 60 percent of (men's); by 1983, the figure had risen to 64 percent the largest and swiftest gain" during this century, according to the study by Rand economists James P. Smith and Michael P. Ward.

The reason: Women's skills through education and work experience are increasing rapidly, Smith said. THE STUDY disputed a U.S. Census Bureau statistic that shows women earning 59 cents for each dollar a man makes. If calculations are based solely on the wages of currently working women, as the census bureau's were, women's pay would be "even lower," the study said. However, the Rand study took into account the potential wages of the entire female population, projecting what all women would earn based on their education and work experience.

The group did this by developing a model that allowed researchers to figure the wages homemakers would earn if they joined the labor market. The calculations are based on years of schooling and labor market experience. The study said affirmative action programs that prohibit sex discrimination in the workplace "can easily be dismissed" as a factor in the gain. Legislation to prohibit sex discrimination was passed in the 1960s, and "it strains credulity to suppose that these effects would be felt after 1980, especially in a period of budgetary retrenchment by the enforcement agencies," the study said. A stagnant male-female salary ratio would be cause for concern, the study said, because it "suggests an inflexible labor market that has failed to reward the obviously increasing skill of women as more of them have entered the labor market and more have stayed with it." New York Times photo James Pratt, a Birmingham, lawyer, built a case against Ford Motor Co.

by saying his client's car was not crashworthy because it lacked air bags. Ford settled out of court with the client, who was left a quadriplegic after her accident. Air bag boosters go into court NIPPONDENSO CO. LTD. of Japan will build a $50-million air-conditioner components factory in Battle Creek, President Kengo Toda said.

The plant, whose products will be used by Honda of America Manufacturing Co. should provide 200 jobs, the company said. Completion of the plant is scheduled for mid-1986, the company said. It will be run by a U.S. company, Nippondenso Manufacturing U.S.A.

Inc. TRAPPERS ALLEY MARKETPLACE, the retail-ing center in Greektown slated for a May opening, has signed 20 tenants reserving about 40 percent of its retail space and plans to announce 1 7 more tenants this week, William Carpenter vice-president of leasing said. Stores which have signed leases include a sports paraphenalia shop owned by tennis star Martina Navratilova, the Have A Heart shop with heart-decorated offerings, a perfume boutique, a bookstore and 12 restaurants and food shops. Trappers Alley has been in the planning stage for about 12 years. ENERGY CONVERSION DEVICES is Hearing an agreement with China that would open up that market to solar power cells developed by the Troy-based company.

Sovonics Solar Technology, a partnership of Energy Conversion Devices and Standard Oil Co. of Ohio, has signed a memorandum of understanding with a delegation of specialists to work toward establishing a joint venture to make and market the solar cells in China, ECD said. THE AUTOMOBILE CLUB of Michigan's life insurance affiliate, the Auto Club Life Insurance is the first Michigan-based company to offer the same life insurance rates for men and women. today's focus: autos etcetera New York Times Federal regulators have been arguing for more than a decade about whether Detroit should be forced to equip its new cars with air bags, which inflate automatically in a crash to protect passengers. But recently, a small group of trial lawyers from around the nation has quietly developed a strategy they hope will move the air bag question out of the regulatory agencies and into the courts.

Their approach is novel, and no court has yet ruled in their favor to the contrary, one federal court has ruled against them so it is impossible to gauge their eventual success. But they are grounding their argument in well-established legal theories, and if they win some cases, they could put serious pressure on auto manufacturers by winning substantial damages for their clients. "We are trying to use economic pressure to force them to offer air bags," said Joan Claybrook, a former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and 'one of the leading forces behind the campaign. THE STRATEGY is an effort to exploit the existing laws of product liability. In several lawsuits filed and many more under consideration lawyers are claiming that automakers should be held strictly liable for injuries caused by crashes because, by failing to equip cars with air bags or other passive-restraint systems, the manufacturers have designed unreasonably dangerous products.

Or, using a slightly different legal posture, they claim the companies were negligent in failing to exercise due care to make a crashworthy product. For its part, the industry says air bags are too expensive, not fully tested and do not provide as much protection as seat belts. "We believe air bags probably do offer some additional protection over and above that offered by seat belts, but we don't have enough experience with them to say how much," said Helen Petrauskas, vice-president of environmental and safety engineering at Ford Motor Co. "The biggest disadvantage of air bags is that many people think that if they have air bags, they don't have to wear their seat belts." The fact that air bags are not required by the federal government with the result that the industry practice is not to use them is one of the defenses the manufacturers raise in the lawsuits. The courts, they say, should not use personal injury cases to impose a new design requirement on the whole industry.

ONE FEDERAL district judge, in Tampa, agreed, and, in August dismissed an air bag suit against General Motors Corp. brought by a woman who suffered permanent brain damage in a car crash. She claimed that the company's failure to install an air bag was a design defect. "Although the manufacturer is required to take reasonable steps, within the limits of cost, technology and marketability, to design and produce a product that minimizes unavoidable hazards, the manufacturer cannot be placed in the position of an insurer," Judge George C. Carr wrote in the Tampa case.

Despite that ruling, which is being appealed, the trial lawyers remain optimistic. In Florida, a class action suit has been filed on behalf of 25,000 victims of front-end crashes." And last March, one week into trial, Ford agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle the claim of an 18-year-old Alabama woman who was in a car crash that left her a quadraple-gic. Her lawyer, James Pratt of Birmingham, built his case around claims that her car was uncrashworthy because it lacked air bags. "Talking to the jurors informally after it was over, we found they were very receptive to the idea of air bags," Pratt said. Ford later said the settlement was based on considerations other than air bags.

But Pratt and others familiar with the suit say the air bag charges were the focus of the trial. After the settlement, Ford persuaded the judge to seal 5,000 pages of documents cost studies, crash tests and so on that Pratt was using to show that Ford could have, and should have, used air bags to avert injuries like those suffered by his client. THE AIR BAG question, of course, is still making its way through the regulatory agencies. In July, Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole announced that air bags or other passive restraints systems would be required in all new cars in 1 989, unless states representing two-thirds of the population adopted laws requiring the use of seat belts. Most industry experts expect that most states will pass seat-belt laws as New York and New Jersey already have and the production of cars with air bags will, once again, be stalled.

American way Greenfield Village gets unionized Associated Press Under the spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands. Now, he's one Owen Bieber's man, With union card in hand. The United Auto Workers union announced Tuesday that workers at Greenfield Village in suburban Dearborn the outdoor museum founded by Henry Ford had voted by a 2-1 margin for representation by the UAW and Bieber, its president. The union said the bargaining unit contains 126 employes at the village and the adjacent Henry Ford Museum. Included are maintenance workers, drivers and production employes the village blacksmith, glassblowers, candle-makers and others who portray the work and life-styles from America's bygone days.

"We look forward to winning solid first contracts for our newest members," UAW Vice President Stephen Yokich said. "From now on, not only the spirit of American ingenuity but also the spirit of American trade unionism will be on display at Greenfield Village." The village and museum were set up by Ford and now are operated by the non-profit, independent Edison Institute. It is perhaps best known for containing the New Jersey workshop of Thomas Edison; the Dayton, Ohio, home and bicycle shop of the Wright brothers; the home of California naturalist Luther Burbank, and the original Detroit auto factory of Ford himself. Yokich said the union vote was 68-36. PRESIDENT REAGAN signed into law a comprehensive package of tariff and trade changes which he said avoids protectionism, shields free trade, and stands as "the most important trade law passed by Congress in a decade." HOUSING SALES soared 21.9 percent in September, the best monthly increase in more than four years, the government reported.

That news was coupled with a report indicating that the average price of a new home hit 1 00, 1 00, a 4.9 percent gain over the August level of $95,400. And a report by the Conference Board said confidence in the economy remains strong and more families are planning to buy cars and major appliances as consumers approach the "Christmas season in high spirits." Compiled by MINDI KEIRNAN Pontch wants to upgrade image but not this way personal finance Transferring split shares i inherited some stock last year that recently split 2-for-l. I would like to give the new shares to my son instead of receiving the shares myself. Is it possible to notify the transfer agent to do this, or will I need to wait until later to transfer the new shares? VThe new certificate must be issued to the holder of record, points out Richard Wholey of the Chicago-based Wayne Hummer Co. brokerage house.

You may then make a gift of the shares to your son and have them transferred into his name if he is at least 21. If he is under 21, you can have them issued to him, but you must appoint a custodian, Wholey says. You or your wife may be the custodian. Andrew Leckey, Los Angeles Times By BETSEY HANSELL Free Press Marketing Writer Hotel Pontchartrain's new manager, Norman DuPont said the "New Pontchartrain" won't run any more ads trashing the competition, as one published in Monday's Wall Street Journal did. The ad, headlined "How to stay in a Detroit hotel without getting lost," shows confused travelers puzzling over signs remarkably like those at the Renaissance Center's Westin Hotel the Pontchartrain's main competition.

Although Kim Chappell, Westin managing director, said he doesn't object to the ads, DuPont said new Pontchartrain ads will take a higher tone to upgrade its image, which "got rlpprarlfid" in recent vears. town business travelers. "The strategy is the Pontchartrain is a family-owned hotel with a warm, personal touch," he said. "It's saying you're better off here than at a chain." DuPont said the Pontchartrain, which currently rents about 74 percent of its 426 hotel rooms, plans to upgrade its restaurants as well as its image in celebration of the hotel's 20th birthday. "We're going to focus on the French image, which is what this hotel is all about," he said.

DuPont, who arrived at the Pontchartrain Oct. 9, had been manager of the Cerromar Beach Hotel in Dorado, Puerto Rico. Chappell, of the Westin, where the occupancy rate is about 60 percent, said the Westin's success is tied to that of the Pontchartrain and others downtown because additional rooms "are an absolute must" to attract conventions. The Book Cadillac's 18-month closing for renovation will hurt business downtown, he said; he's also looking forward to the September 1985 opening of the Millender Center's Omni International, wjiich is to have 250 rooms. Meanwhile, the Pontch ads won't lure customers from his hotel, he said.

"We advertise that we are a city within a city getting it straight To ensure accuracy, the Free Press will correct in this space any factual error that may occur in our news columns. "We should not create any negative feeling about our neighbor; we're two completely different markets," he said. The Wall Street Journal ad "is cute and clever, but it is basically ridiculing our neighbor. I don't think that works." Johnson a division of Young Rubicam created the series of ads; DuPont said he is looking for a new agency. StAphen Zammarchi, deputy manager of Cato Johnson, said the three ads were not meant to denigrate the Westin but to promote Detroit and the warmth of a small hotel to out-of- Free Press Photo by IRA ROSENBERG The open spaces of the Westin Hotel, above, appear to be the target of a Hotel Pontchartrain ad, which is headlined "How to stay in a Detroit hotel without 1 getting lost." an architect's dream where we provide everything.

Some' people like being in the hustle and bustle." General Motors is recalling 3,900 1983 medium-duty trucks with air brakes because the dual air reservoir check valve may have a faulty spring, which could rust, allowing the chejH valve to fail. fi, an air leak develops in the rear brake system, a low pressure warning light and buzzer would alert the driver..