Ford may cut 4,200 workers at factories
Published 7:13 pm Thursday, September 11, 2008
Ford Motor Co. has said that it wants to cut its blue-collar work force by another 4,200 employees, according to a person briefed on a presentation to union officials. The struggling automaker is offering buyout and early retirement packages at manufacturing operations in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Indiana as it continues efforts to trim its factory ranks to match lower demand for its products. Ford has declined to publicly state a target number, but Joe Hinrichs, group vice president of global manufacturing, told union officials the company has 4,200 more blue-collar workers than it needs, according to the person briefed on the presentation.
Insurer AIG settles commission suit
Attorneys for a Louisiana pension fund reached a $115 million settlement Thursday in a shareholder lawsuit against former executives of insurance giant American International Group Inc. The settlement was reached just days before trial was to begin in a lawsuit challenging hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions paid by AIG to C.V. Starr &Co., a privately held affiliate controlled by former AIG Chairman Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and other AIG directors. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the settlement includes a $29.5 million payment from Greenberg and three other individual defendants, with the remaining $85.5 million covered by liability insurance.
Hurricane threat raises gas prices
The threat of Hurricane Ike pushed gasoline prices higher Thursday, something Gustav failed to do, as the latest storm pushed toward the mass of petroleum refineries along the Gulf Coast. Exxon Mobil Corp., Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil Co. were among the companies halting operations at refineries on the Texas coast, primarily in the Houston area. Refineries along the upper Texas Gulf Coast account for about one-fifth of the nation’s refining capacity. Exxon Mobil’s refinery outside Houston is the nation’s largest.
Banks still borrow from Fed fund
Banks borrowed more over the past week from the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program, while Wall Street firms took a pass for the sixth week in a row. A Fed report released Thursday said commercial banks averaged $19.8 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That compared with a daily average of $18.98 billion in the previous week. For the week ending Sept. 10, Wall Street firms didn’t take out any loans. Their borrowing, however, averaged as high as $38.1 billion a day over the course of a week in April.
No solid answers in speculator study
Federal regulators said Thursday they could not determine after a lengthy review how much speculators have influenced commodity prices, especially the runup earlier this year in oil prices. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a much-anticipated report examining the activities of large index investors and so-called “swap” traders — those who trade on behalf of banks or wealthy individuals — in the commodity futures markets including crude oil.
From Herald news services
