ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 29, 1995                   TAG: 9511290093
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short


IN BUSINESS

Caterpillar makes union an offer

PEORIA, Ill. - Caterpillar Inc. met with the United Auto Workers to hand over a new contract offer Tuesday, but striking workers said if the offer wasn't sweetened they'd prolong the 17-month-old walkout.

The union has promised to take the offer to its members, and locals were scheduling meetings for this weekend.

Company and union leaders have clamped down on information about the offer, but one report called it little different from others the union rejected after the last contract expired four years ago.

The UAW has not had a contract with Caterpillar since September 1991 and has been on strike since June 1994. More than 14,000 workers were eligible for the strike, but around 4,100 have returned to work and others have retired. Only 8,700 strikers remain, the company says.

- Associated Press

USAir will survive, chairman says

ARLINGTON - USAir's survival is not in doubt even though recent merger talks with United and American airlines have collapsed, USAir's chairman told shareholders Tuesday.

Seth E. Schofield said the airline did not necessarily need a partner to remain financially secure in the long run and he had no intention of selling it off in pieces.

``We were not out trying to sell the company,'' Schofield said of the recent talks. ``This was not a distress sale.''

USAir will do fine without a merger and should finish the year with about $1 billion in cash reserves, said Schofield, who plans to retire as soon as a successor is found.

-Associated Press



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