Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994 TAG: 9401280289
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WASHINGTON - Competition is heating up among unions vying to represent 8,000 USAir ground crew workers.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which once bargained for the workers who handle baggage and cargo at USAir, stepped up its campaign Thursday, hoping to avoid a repeat of its dismal 1992 showing in union balloting.
The Teamsters, The United Steelworkers of America and the International Association of Machinists all planned to file election petitions with the National Mediation Board today.
The Teamsters once represented USAir ground crews but lost the right to do so in 1990, a year after the airline merged with Piedmont Aviation. The Teamsters was the only one of four USAir unions required to hold an election.
The unions failed in three attempts in 1990 and 1992 to organize the ground service workers. In the most recent balloting, backers fell about 250 votes short of enough for any union to win collective bargaining rights. But the Steelworkers Union was by far the most favored, winning 2,663 votes to 1,100 for the Machinists to 31 for the Teamsters.
- Associated Press
Steering flaw spurs Jeep recall
DETROIT - Chrysler Corp. is recalling 115,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees and Grand Wagoneers to repair a defect that could cause steering loss.
The recall involves 1993 models built from Dec. 18, 1992, through last summer. Chrysler notified dealers that the lower and upper portions of the steering column could separate because of a sheared connecting pin.
Chrysler sold 217,000 Grand Cherokees and Grand Wagoneers in 1993.
- Associated Press
Mortgage rates dip to 3-month low
WASHINGTON - Thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.97 percent this week, down from 7.05 percent last week, according to a national survey released Thursday by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
It was the lowest since Oct. 28, when they averaged 6.86 percent. After dropping to a 25-year low of 6.74 percent in October, rates rose to 7.31 percent in November and then began drifting lower.
On one-year adjustable rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 4.16 percent, down from 4.24 percent last week and the lowest since they averaged 4.14 percent on Oct. 21. Fifteen-year mortgages averaged 6.47 percent this week, down from 6.57 percent a week earlier.
- Associated Press
Japan could balk at tariff-cut pleas
GENEVA - Japan this weekend is likely to spurn efforts by the United States and the European Union to secure bigger tariff cuts than those already agreed to in the Uruguay Round of world trade talks, senior diplomatic sources said.
President Clinton and European Union Commission President Jacques Delors agreed this month that Japan should reduce its levies on industrial imports before the Uruguay Round signing ceremony in Morocco.
In confidential talks Sunday and Monday between chief market access negotiators of the so called Quad members - Japan, Canada, the United States and the European Union - Brussels and Washington are expected to press Japan on the tariff question, sources said.
The United States and Canada will lean on Japan to eliminate import duties on copper products and will seek elimination of import duties on lumber.
The European Union is likely to ask Japan to remove all import duties on white spirits - vodka and gin - and to make larger cuts in peak tariffs in leather products, quad sources said. - Journal of Commerce
by CNB