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

DATE: SATURDAY, November 20, 1993                   TAG: 9311230390
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

American Airlines' pilots' union said Friday it would not join the flight attendants in their walkout because they had been so successful at shutting down the airline on their own.

The Allied Pilots Association had asked its members to vote on whether to wage a sympathy strike. But union President Rich LaVoy said the votes would not be counted. A walkout by the union representing American's 10,000 pilots likely would have grounded the carrier.

The strike-crippled airline scrapped half its flights Friday as thousands of passengers trying to get home for Thanksgiving competed for the dwindling number of seats on other airlines.

American Eagle, American Airlines' commuter subsidiary, continued operating its three daily flights daily between Roanoke Regional Airport and the American's hub at Raleigh-Durham (N.C.) airport.

Passengers whose connecting flights in North Carolina have been affected by the strike are being transferred to other airlines before they leave Roanoke, the airline said.

- Wire and staff reports

Piece Goods plans to close 50 stores

Piece Goods Shops Co., a retailer of fabrics and crafts that has been operating under bankruptcy protection since April, plans to close 50 more stores, including stores in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

Roanoke operations are not affected, the company said Friday.

The closings are in addition to the 29 stores that Piece Goods closed earlier this year. About 500 jobs have been cut since the Winston-Salem, N.C.,-based company filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act.

Piece Goods executives have blamed the company's troubles on a recession in the fabrics industry, but they also acknowledge that the company's finances have been squeezed by the costs of a leveraged buyout in 1989.

Piece Goods had net income of $168,000 in September, according to its latest financial report filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Greensboro, N.C. Its sales were down 9 percent at stores open at least one year. Piece Goods had a loss of $17,000 in September 1992.

Piece Goods will have 239 stores in 19 states when the last of the 50 stores are closed next year.

- Associated Press

Crestar to redeem preferred stock

Crestar Financial Corp., a Richmond-based banking company with offices in Western Virginia, on Friday said it plans to redeem all 900,000 outstanding shares of its adjustable rate cumulative preferred stock, series B. The stock, whose annual dividend rate is 5.5 percent, will be redeemed on Dec. 23 at 103 percent of the stated value, or $51.50 per share, plus accrued and unpaid dividends. Notices to shareholders will be mailed Monday.

- Wire report