Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 25, 1994 TAG: 9403250155
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: TOKYO LENGTH: Medium
The unions were demanding a minimum 3.2 percent wage increase; major appliance producers such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Toshiba Corp. and Pioneer Electronics Corp. were holding firm at 3 percent.
Analysts said a few unions think they must mount an especially tough "spring labor offensive" this year to stem what is turning out to be the lowest increase in four decades.
Union members at major private railways also threatened to strike Friday over wages. This would affect employees at a broad range of industries.
- Journal of Commerce\ \ Shipyards deny reports of buyout
NORFOLK - Officials of two major Virginia shipyards have dismissed a report that the bigger of the two may be planning to buy the other.
"It's baloney," said Jack Schnaedter at the huge Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.
"I feel like a victim of the tabloids," said John L. Roper IV, executive vice president for operations at the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Corp.
The report published in the March issue of Marine Log, a maritime industry publication, pointed to recent cooperation by the two yards on several ship-repair projects.
The report said cooperation has "helped fuel rumors" suggesting that the Newport News yard, Virginia's largest private employer, "may soon buy Norshipco." - Associated Press Teamsters reject dues-raising try
\ Chesapeake Corp., Richmond-based forest-products company with operations of its Chesapeake Packaging Co. division in Roanoke, said Thursday it will offer $50 million in tax-exempt bonds due March 1, 2019, issued by the Industrial Development Authority of the Town of West Point, Va. Net proceeds will pay for solid-waste disposal facilities for the pulp and paper mill owned by its subsidiary, Chesapeake Paper Products Co. in West Point, and to the refunding of its bonds issued in 1984.
A shipping line based in Uruguay will expand its service to the Newport News Marine Terminal, increasing its annual cargo volume through Virginia an estimated 100,000 tons. The announcement involving Pan American Line was made this week by the Virginia Port Authority. Overall, cargo volume through Newport News during the first two months of this year more than doubled last year's total. The biggest gains were in steel, cocoa beans, linerboard and wastepaper.
by CNB