Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306090089
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NEWPORT NEWS - Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. said Tuesday 500 workers will be laid off in Newport News and another 500 jobs will be phased out at the company's Industries Plant in Asheville, N.C.
The layoffs in Newport News will involve 300 hourly workers and 200 salaried employees. The Asheville plant will be closed by June 1994.
"Because of declining submarine and aircraft carrier work and the delays of the Navy's Sealift program, these actions are imperative to preserve the competitive future of Newport News Shipbuilding," Pat Phillips, president of the company, said in a statement announcing the cutbacks. - Associated Press
Foreign investment in U.S. business falls
WASHINGTON - Spending by foreigners to acquire or establish businesses in the United States dropped 47 percent last year from 1991 to a nine-year low of $13.5 billion, the government said Tuesday.
The reasons cited in the Commerce Department report include the slow economic recovery in the United States, sluggishness in the economies of investing nations abroad and competition for funds from Eastern Europe and developing countries in Asia and Latin America.
Direct investment by foreigners in U.S. businesses peaked in 1988 at $72.7 billion. It has fallen in every year since, hitting $25.5 billion in 1991 before declining again last year. Last year's total of $13.5 billion was the smallest since 1983. - Associated Press
Elliott Co., union contract expected
Contract negotiations between union workers and a Roanoke Valley electrical firm, Davis H. Elliott Co. Inc., continued Tuesday, with a company lawyer predicting an agreement "in the ordinary course."
Elliott and Local 637 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are working out a new yearlong contract. The most recent contract expired May 30 but was extended 10 days so talks could continue.
"I expect it will be a routine negotiation," said Bayard Harris, a Roanoke lawyer representing the company.
Davis H. Elliott operates two divisions: one maintaining exterior electrical lines and power stations, the other, with some 50 IBEW members, focused on industrial and commercial installation and construction. - Staff report
Briefly . . .
Basic Estate Services Co. has opened an office in suite 16 of the Colonial Hills Building, 2728 Colonial Ave., Roanoke. The firm helps people identify and find family documents and provides a system for filing the papers, said its president, Barry R. May.
R.H. Macy & Co. Inc., the New York and San Francisco-based retailer, and Home Shopping Network Inc. said they intend to explore a business agreement whereby HSN would fill orders and serve customers for TV Macy's. Macy's said June 1 it would launch a 24-hour cable television shopping program. Under the proposal, Home Shopping would provide telemarketing and order-processing services. Home Shopping operates an order-filling warehouse in Salem.
The U.S. Postal Service will start taking credit and debit cards nationwide soon. The Postal Service last week began accepting plastic for payment in post offices in the Washington, D.C., area; Dallas, and Orlando, Fla., and said it will put card-processing machines in many of its 40,000 outlets around the nation beginning next spring.
by CNB