News Briefs - Nov. 25
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The Latest Headlines:
- Existing Home Sales Fall but Remain Strong
- Senate Scraps Energy Bill for 2003
- PJAX Settles Discrimination Lawsuit
- Teamsters Enter California Grocer Dispute
- Con-Way Withdraws Insurance Surcharge
- Dana Suing S&S Truck Parts
- C.H. Robinson Ups Dividend
- Survey: OPEC Producing More Than Its Quota
- Senate Scraps Energy Bill for 2003
Existing Home Sales Fall but Remain Strong
Sales of previously owned homes declined 4.9% in October to 6.35 million houses at an annual rate, but that was still the third-strongest reading ever, an industry report released Tuesday showed.The National Association of Realtors said 6.68 million homes were resold in September. The September pace was previously reported as a record 6.69 million.
Existing homes account for 85% of the residential real estate market and new homes the remainder. Transport Topics
Senate Scraps Energy Bill for 2003
After falling two Senate votes short of sending an energy bill to President Bush, Congress is giving up on energy legislation for this year, the Associated Press reported.owever, Republican leaders vowed to return to the $31 billion measure early next year.
The Senate abandoned the legislation late Monday after it became clear a dispute over a gasoline additive, MTBE, was not going to be resolved, AP said.
The bill passed the House easily last week, but an attempt Friday to shut off debate in the Senate and bring the measure up for a final vote fell two senators short of the 60 needed. Transport Topics
(Click here for previous coverage.)
PJAX Settles Discrimination Lawsuit
Private trucking firm PJAX Inc., Gibsonia, Pa., agreed to pay more than $500,000 to five female workers to resolve a discrimination lawsuit, the Associated Press reported.The company must also revise its anti-discrimination policy, implement anti-discrimination training and hire a human resources specialist to investigate discrimination complaints, AP said.
Company officials denied the allegations, but decided to resolve the suit to avoid the expense of a court case, spokeswoman Roxanne Germ told AP.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claimed PJAX's owners and other managers screamed vulgarities at female employees, called them sexually derogatory names and made them perform chores, according to AP. Transport Topics
Teamsters Enter California Grocer Dispute
Striking supermarket workers and grocers in Southern California halted talks on Monday aimed at settling the six-week strike, and the Teamsters union joined the dispute by refusing to supply stores, Bloomberg reported.The Teamsters, whose members drive trucks, halted deliveries from nine distribution centers at noon local time, spokesman Don Owens told Bloomberg. About 10,000 Teamsters had been driving to stores, where they did not cross picket lines to unload.
The supermarket union, which represents 70,000 workers, is striking mainly over sharing health-care costs, Bloomberg said. The workers have been on strike or locked out of their jobs since Oct. 11.
Grocers such as Kroger Co., Safeway Inc. and Albertson's Inc. are trying to cut expenses to cope with increased competition from discount retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which plans to open 40 stores in California that sell groceries starting next year, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Con-Way Withdraws Insurance Surcharge
Just days after announcing it would begin applying a 2% surcharge to all shipments, less-than-truckload carrier Con-Way Transportation Services Inc. said Monday it was withdrawing it after receiving feedback from customers.The company said in a release that customers prefer rising insurance expenses be included in a general rate increase, and it planned to follow "this more traditional route."
Con-Way is a subsidiary of CNF Inc., ranked No. 4 on the 2003 Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
Dana Suing S&S Truck Parts
Vehicle parts maker Dana Corp. and subsidiary Torque-Traction Technology Inc. said it had filed a lawsuit against parts distributor S&S Truck Parts Inc. for patent and trademark infringement and unfair competition practices.The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, alleged that S&S unlawfully labeled its materials with Dana trademarks and was infringing at least one of Dana's universal-joint patents.
S&S told Transport Topics it would comment on the suit on Tuesday afternoon.
Dana said in a release it was seeking an order requiring the company to cease its deceptive actions, as well as unspecified damages. Transport Topics
C.H. Robinson Ups Dividend
C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. said its board of directors has increased its regular quarterly cash dividend to 12 cents per share from 8 cents.The dividend will be paid out on Jan. 2, to shareholders of record on Dec. 5. C.H. Robinson said there are about 84.7 million shares of its stock outstanding.
Based in Minneapolis, C.H. Robinson is a third-party logistics provider serving customers in North and South America, Asia and Europe. Transport Topics
Survey: OPEC Producing More Than Its Quota
PetroLogistics said Monday that the OPEC oil cartel has failed to cut production this month by as much as promised, a sign rising prices led members to skirt their quotas, Bloomberg reported.The 10 members of the cartel, excluding Iraq, are likely to pump about 25.5 million barrels a day in November, 1 million a day more than planned, Bloomberg said. OPEC pumps about one-third of the world's oil.
PetroLogistics said OPEC output this month is down about 700,000 barrels a day from a revised October estimate of 26.2 million barrels a day.
OPEC surprised the market with a cut at its Sept. 24 meeting pegged at 900,000 barrels a day, or 3.5%, as of Nov. 1. Transport Topics
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