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Business Digest
Grocery clerks to stay as labor talks go on

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The United Food and Commercial Workers union and the stores — Albertsons, Safeway and Kroger-owned QFC and Fred Meyer — decided yesterday after four days of talks to extend the contract until Thursday and to meet again Wednesday and Thursday.

"While discussions are slow due to the challenging nature of some key issues, enough progress was made this week to continue negotiations," the two sides said in a joint statement.

The union and employers opted to call in a federal mediator during their last talks June 24 and 25. The presence of a third party has been a huge help, said Melinda Merrill, spokeswoman for the supermarkets.

Negotiations on the contract that covers 25,000 workers started in April. The main issue is health care. The stores argue they can no longer absorb high health-care costs and need to transfer some of it to workers. The unions say that workers are willing to contribute, but fear the supermarkets' proposal makes premiums too expensive, especially for those who work part time.

Alaska Airlines

Earnings charge expected

SEATTLE — Alaska Airlines said yesterday that it expects to record an unspecified charge against second-quarter earnings to reflect the planned retirement of its fleet of Boeing 737-200 jetliners by the end of 2007.

Alaska, a unit of Alaska Air Group, operated nine of the narrow-body 737-200s in its fleet of 109 aircraft at the end of 2003.

Micron Technology

CEO rebounds from crash
 
SAN FRANCISCO — The chief executive of Micron Technology is expected to make a full recovery and return to work Monday after crashing his stunt plane in the Idaho desert Thursday evening, a spokesman for the memory-chip maker said yesterday.

Steve Appleton, 44, suffered scrapes, bruises and a minor back injury after crashing the aircraft just outside of Boise, said spokesman Dave Parker. Another Micron employee who was with Appleton suffered minor injuries and is also expected to make a full recovery, Parker said.

Appleton's flight was being filmed as part of a video that was to be used in an industry event, Parker said. Appleton is scheduled to give a keynote address at a semiconductor trade show next week in San Francisco, and he still plans to attend, Parker said.

Micron is the largest private employer in Idaho, and has a work force of about 9,500 people.

Nation and World

MCI

Ex-CEO sued for millions

NEW YORK — MCI is suing its former CEO Bernard Ebbers, saying he must repay $408 million the company loaned him over two years.

The suit, filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, also seeks to void Ebbers' resignation agreement, which promised him a lifetime pension of $1.5 million a year, an office and computer, and use of the company jet.

Ebbers was forced from the company in April 2002 after the loans became public. The company filed for bankruptcy in July of that year after internal investigators uncovered an accounting fraud that ultimately totaled $11 billion. The company emerged from bankruptcy protection in April.

Benefit for foundation

$202,100 for Buffet lunch

A lunch for eight with billionaire investor Warren Buffett sold for $202,100 in an auction benefiting a charity on eBay's Web site.

A bidder with the user name jchoo9 who is registered in Singapore won the 10-day auction. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that aids the homeless and poor.

The winning bid fell short of last year's $250,100 that Greenlight Capital founder David Einhorn paid. Buffett, 73, has auctioned off the lunch for the past five years.

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