Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150048
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Union workers at Tultex operations in Martinsville planned to rally outside the company's main plant gate late Tuesday as their contract negotiations with the company enter a crucial final stage.
Workers planned to discuss contract goals at the rally, according to a union statement released earlier in the day. Union officials were not available later to confirm or describe the action.
Tultex's hourly workers and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union have been negotiating with the company for the past six months. The talks have begun to focus recently on economic issues such as pay and fringe benefits, which are the key items standing in the way of the workers' first contract with the company, the union said.
-Associated Press
NationsBank gets OK for merger
RICHMOND - NationsBank Corp. said Tuesday that it has received permission from federal regulators to merge its Virginia bank with the one that serves Maryland and the District of Columbia.
The approval of NationsBank's merger request came from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks.
The move will let NationsBank's Washington-area customers make deposits and cash checks at any branch in the area. Until now, a Northern Virginia commuter who opened an account at a branch near home could not conduct such transactions during a lunch break in downtown Washington.
NationsBank will save more than $1 million a year by merging the units, said Jim Choplick, a company spokesman in Baltimore.
Last year, Congress approved an interstate banking bill that will allow multistate consolidation starting in mid-1997.
NationsBank was eager to start earlier. The Charlotte, N.C.-based company has estimated it will save $60 million a year when it consolidates all of the headquarters in its nine-state region.
-Associated Press
Weekly coal output down 8 percent
Domestic coal production totaled 21.3 million tons in the week ending March 4, down 8 percent from 23.1 million tons the previous week, the U.S. Department of Energy reported. The U.S. coal industry produced 20.9 million tons in the same week last year.
Virginia mines produced 866,000 tons during the survey week, down from 964,000 tons a week earlier but up from 784,000 tons a year earlier.
Production so far this year is 190.4 million tons, 10 percent ahead of last year's at this time.
-Associated Press
by CNB