Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 22, 1995                   TAG: 9511220057
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Postal Service and its rural letter carriers have agreed on a new four-year contract with terms similar to those ordered by federation arbitration boards with two other postal unions.

In the Roanoke Valley, there are about 20 rural carriers based in Roanoke branch post offices and others elsewhere in valley.

The Postal Service said the agreement with the 96,000-member National Rural Letter Carriers' Association provides an initial lump-sum payment equal to 2.78 percent of a worker's salary in the first year, pay increases of 1.2 percent plus cost-of-living adjustments in the second and fourth years, and $400 cash and a COLA adjustment in the third year.

Base pay in the Postal Service ranges from about $19,500 a year for starting mail handlers to nearly $36,000 for experienced clerks and letter carriers.

- Staff and wire report

Eagle Rock rejects extended calling

Telephone customers in Eagle Rock have turned down a proposal to extend their local calling area to include Clifton Forge.

R&B Telephone Co. said Tuesday that 38 percent of those who returned their ballots this month favored paying higher monthly rates in order to reach the additional telephones. The polling ended last week.

If the measure had been approved, the residential one-party flat rate in Eagle Rock would have increased $3.45 a month. The residential one-party message rate would have gone up $2 a month.

In exchange for the higher rates, Eagle Rock businesses and residents would have been able to call Clifton Forge without having to dial the area code or incur long distance charges.

- Associated Press

N.C. furniture firm sold to Interco

LANCASTER, Pa. - Armstrong World Industries Inc. said it will sell its furniture business to Interco Inc. of St. Louis in a deal worth $339 million. The company said Interco will buy its Thomasville Furniture Industries Inc. for $331 million in cash and assume $8 million in debt. The deal is expected to close by year end.

Thomasville, based in Thomasville, N.C., employs 7,000 people in 28 plants across North Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi and Tennessee. It was founded in 1904 and acquired by Armstrong in 1968.

The company had operating profits of $38.6 million on sales of $526.8 million last year. Interco, which makes Broyhill and Lane brands, had 1994 operating profits of $102 million on sales of $1.1 billion.

- Associated Press

Briefly ...

Qualichem Inc. of Roanoke has agreed with Houseman Ltd. of the United Kingdom to manufacture and distribute specialty chemical products marketed under the PermaCare name. Omega Chemicals, S.A. de C.V., Water Treatment Division, a joint venture of Omega Chemicals of Mexico and Qualichem, will make and distribute Houseman's PermaCare products in Mexico. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Daimler-Benz, Germany's largest industrial group, said Tuesday it will cut 8,800 jobs over the next three years from its troubled aerospace subsidiary to reduce costs. The cuts represent about 14.6 percent of the division's work force at the end of 1994.