AFL-CIO’s embattled chief gets 4th term amid dissent
Chicago – AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, the center of a storm in the labor movement, was re-elected to a fourth term Wednesday – just days after the defection of two major unions that sought his ouster.
Sweeney had headed one of those unions, the Service Employees International Union, when he was first elected AFL-CIO president in 1995.
He faced no opposition for another four-year term with the AFL-CIO on Wednesday.
The two dissident unions, the SEIU and Teamsters, said Sweeney was doing too little to reverse the decades-long decline in union membership. They also accused him of focusing more on building political clout than on organizing efforts to recruit new members and said it was time for new ideas at the top.
Sweeney, 71, was defiant. He called the defections a “grievous insult” that could hurt workers already buffeted by the global economy and anti-union forces in Congress.
DENVER
Newmont plant to power Nev. mines
Newmont Mining Corp., the world’s biggest gold producer, expects to spend $430 million on a power plant in Nevada to power its mines, executive vice president of operations David Francisco said Wednesday.
The coal-fired power plant, which will start generating 200 megawatts of electricity in 2008, will reduce production costs at Nevada mines by $20 per ounce of gold, Francisco said in a conference call. Newmont spends $100 million a year on electricity to run ore-processing mills in Nevada, double the cost of five years ago.
BROOMFIELD
Comcast gets support for VoIP from Level 3
Level 3 Communications Inc. announced Wednesday that its operating subsidiary is now providing Comcast with underlying backbone support for the rollout of its new Internet voice service, Comcast Digital Voice.
As Comcast begins deployment of its voice service, Level 3’s backbone support will allow the Voice-over-Internet-Protocol calls to travel along a privately managed network.
NEW YORK
Judge lets Adelphia sell its long-distance
Adelphia Communications Corp., the bankrupt cable operator, won court approval to sell its long-distance telephone business to Pioneer Telephone for $1.2 million. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber approved the sale Wednesday.
Greenwood Village-based Adelphia’s long-distance unit provides service to approximately 110,000 subscribers in 27 states. The business had $8.6 million in revenue in 2004, according to papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
SEATTLE
Google wants lawsuit by Microsoft dropped
In a simmering legal tussle, Google Inc. has asked a judge to reject Microsoft’s bid to keep a prized research engineer from defecting to the Internet search company. It accused the software titan of filing the lawsuit “to scare other Microsoft employees to remain at the company.”
Microsoft Corp. sued Google and Kai-Fu Lee, one of its former executives, last week, claiming that by taking the Google job, Lee violated an agreement he signed in 2000. The agreement barred him from working for a direct competitor.
WASHINGTON
Oil, utilities spent millions on energy bill
Oil and utility companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Southern Co. spent $367 million over the past two years pushing the U.S. Congress to pass energy legislation. For many, the money was a good investment: Lawmakers are poised to pass a measure providing about $11.6 billion in taxpayer subsidies.
House and Senate negotiators approved compromise legislation Tuesday. President Bush, who has been seeking an energy bill since the start of his first term, will have it on his desk by Friday, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said.
LOS ANGELES
McDonald’s signs deal to promote “Shrek 3”
Ronald McDonald is getting a new sidekick: Shrek.
McDonald’s Corp. said Wednesday it has signed a two-year, non-exclusive deal to promote DreamWorks Animation SKG films, beginning with the release of “Shrek 3” in 2007.
McDonald’s previously said it wanted to try a new approach to marketing partnerships when its 10-year deal with The Walt Disney Co. expires next year.
BENTONVILLE, Ark.
Wal-Mart sues retiree over alleged fraud
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed a suit on Wednesday against Thomas Coughlin, a former vice chairman, seeking to void his retirement package and to recover funds the company said he fraudulently siphoned from the company.
The lawsuit, filed in Benton County Circuit Court in Arkansas, came after Wal-Mart sent a letter last month to Coughlin’s lawyers, accusing him of “a scheme to misappropriate corporate funds and property for his own personal benefit.”
DES MOINES, Iowa
Whirlpool scrutinizes Maytag’s accounting
Whirlpool officials began taking a closer look at Maytag books Wednesday as the appliance companies took the initial steps toward a deal that would combine their businesses.
In a statement Wednesday, the Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool said it had entered into a mutual confidentiality agreement with Maytag Corp., allowing its accountants to examine Maytag’s financial records in detail.
CHICAGO
ADM lures experts for currency trading
Archer Daniels Midland Co., the world’s largest grain processor, said it hired two foreign exchange specialists away from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to start an electronic currency trading operation.
Barry Crawford and Leonard O’Driscoll will co-manage the new Global Foreign Exchange department within ADM Derivatives Inc., a newly created unit of the Decatur, Ill.-based company, Archer Daniels said.
LEIPZIG, Germany
Porsche Panamera to feature four doors
Porsche AG, a manufacturer of two-door coupe and convertible sports cars for more than half a century, announced Wednesday that it would build its first four-door car – the Panamera – to go on sale in 2009.
Porschephiles seemed to welcome the news, noting that the carmaker broke ground for new body types when it introduced the Cayenne sport utility vehicle in 2003.
