Weekly interest and loan rates | Home values Northwest stock contest 2004 | Consumer affairs

Business Digest
Top Food to work under present contract

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Under the agreement with United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) locals 1105 and 367, employees at nine Top Foods stores will continue working under their current contract until a new deal emerges from the negotiations involving the larger chains: Safeway, Albertsons, QFC and Fred Meyer.

Top Foods employees still must ratify any new contract, company spokeswoman Becky Skaggs said. Representatives from the four larger chains and the UFCW are scheduled to resume contract talks Friday.

Last month, workers reached similar interim agreements at 19 independent stores in King County, including certain Thriftway, Metropolitan Market, Red Apple, Market Place and Town & Country stores.

Big employers to offer new health insurance

CHICAGO — Seeking to address a growing social problem and save themselves money, more than 50 of the country's largest employers plan to band together to offer health insurance to workers who otherwise would not qualify.

The companies — including McDonald's, Sears, Caterpillar, Ford and GE — yesterday said they could eventually offer coverage to 4 million uninsured workers and their dependents by next year.

The coalition intends to create a single pool of uninsured workers, contract workers and early retirees and then seek bids by September from large health-insurance companies.

Employers hope, by creating a pool that spreads risk, to keep premiums below what workers would pay if they sought coverage individually and with fewer barriers to entry.

Workers could begin getting benefits in early 2005, according to the HR Policy Association, a Washington-based lobbying group comprised of human-resources executives.

UBS fined $100 million for violating sanctions
 

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve yesterday fined Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, $100 million for allegedly sending dollars to Cuba, Libya, Iran and Yugoslavia in violation of U.S. sanctions against those countries.

UBS operated a trading center for dollars in its Zurich headquarters under contract with the Federal Reserve of New York, to help the circulation of new U.S. notes and the retirement of old ones. One condition was that the Swiss bank not deliver or accept dollar notes to or from banks in countries that are under U.S. trade sanctions.

In an announcement, the Fed said some former UBS bank officers and employees concealed the transactions by falsifying UBS' monthly reports to the U.S. central bank. UBS agreed to pay a $100 million civil fine without admitting to the allegations.

The bank said yesterday that some employees have been dismissed and disciplinary measures were taken against others.

Trial date set for PeopleSoft vs. Oracle

SAN FRANCISCO — A California judge has set a Nov. 1 trial date for PeopleSoft's lawsuit against Oracle for unfair business practices related to its $9.4 billion hostile takeover bid.

Oracle launched its bid for PeopleSoft last June. PeopleSoft then sued its rival business software maker, claiming Oracle's bid was aimed at undermining its business. PeopleSoft is seeking undisclosed financial damages.

In a separate case, Oracle is set to defend its takeover bid in federal court in San Francisco on June 7. The U.S. Justice Department sued Oracle to block the takeover proposal on antitrust grounds.

U.S. antitrust regulators, backed by 10 states, argue the enterprise software market has too few players to accommodate the Oracle merger.

Compiled from Seattle Times business staff, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Reuters and The Chicago Tribune.