Members of Teamsters Union Local 763 have ratified a proposed contract with The Herald, and the new contract should be signed sometime next week, Herald controller Jerry Knoblich said. The contract gives raises of slightly more than 3 percent a year to about 25 Herald drivers, who haul newspapers from the printing plant in Everett to distribution points around Snohomish and Island counties. It also improves pension and sick leave provisions, Knoblich said. A spokesman for the union couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday. The union in August had authorized a strike against the paper, with workers saying they were frustrated at the slow pace of negotiations. The old contract expired on May 30 and talks had been under way since April.
The facade of OPEC unity showed signs of cracking Tuesday as the cartel’s delegates strained to reconcile their alarm over plunging crude oil prices with their pledge to provide enough oil for a weakened world economy now reeling from terrorist attacks in the United States. Delegates of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries expressed diverging views about what to do when they officially meet today in the Austrian capital to reassess their current output. OPEC has insisted it will work to keep oil prices and supplies stable as the United States and its allies prepare for military action against Afghanistan and forces loyal to Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
Computer chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said Tuesday it is cutting 2,300 jobs and closing two factories in Texas to cut costs and strengthen its core business. The cuts represent about 15.3 percent of AMD’s global workforce of 15,000. A total of 1,000 positions will be lost as a result of closing two factories in Austin. The remainder of the jobs will be cut as AMD restructures operations in Malaysia. The reductions will be completed by the end of the second quarter 2002. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD, like other chipmakers, has been hit by the economic downturn and slowing demand for personal computers. AMD also has been cutting prices on its Athlon and Duron processors to match price reductions by rival Intel Corp. on its Pentium lines.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. reported a 32 percent drop in third-quarter earnings Tuesday as an extended slump in trading activity as well as mergers and acquisitions during the economic slowdown pushed down revenue. Lehman posted earnings of $309 million, or $1.14 a share, in the quarter ended Aug. 31, compared with $457 million, or $1.68 a share, in the same period last year. The results beat Wall Street’s expectations of $1.08 a share, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. Sales fell to $1.6 billion from $2.1 billion a year earlier.
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