GM cancels some new models
General Motors Corp. is putting the brakes on several new-model projects to conserve cash, according to a published report yesterday.
Meanwhile, the automaker is warning local and state governments that up to 21,200 United Auto Workers drawing benefits from an income security fund could be laid off in January.
The trade journal Automotive News reported GM has canceled a redesign of its Buick Century and Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, both assembled in Oklahoma City. The plant will continue to build the existing models of the cars, introduced in 1982 and slightly restyled in 1989.
The decision reverses an announcement in August, when plant workers were told they would get a new platform -- the chassis, powertrain and axles -- for the Ciera-Century replacement in 1995.
KLM-Northwest deal called off
A trade journal reported yesterday that a deal for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to invest up to $500 million in new money in Northwest Airlines has collapsed. Commercial Aviation Report had reported the deal Wednesday. A congressman also said there was such a transaction.
But KLM spokeswoman Odette Fodor said yesterday that there never had been a deal. "Both stories are incorrect," she said. KLM, which provided $400 million to back a $3.6 billion leveraged buyout of Northwest in 1989, holds a 49 percent stake in the Eagan, Minn.-based carrier.
Commercial Aviation Report said the deal fell through Thursday, one day before Northwest was to announce the pact to a group of bankers that financed the leveraged buyout.
Dell Computer, NCR cut prices
Dell Computer Corp. and NCR Corp. announced new low prices on personal computers yesterday, while Compaq Computer Corp. brought the curtain up on powerful new notebook-size PCs.
Meanwhile, Apple Computer Inc. said it joined nine software vendors in offering development tools that allow corporations to build computer systems uniting everything from the personal computers to mainframes.
Union ratifies Mack contract
Union workers at Mack Trucks Inc. ratified a three-year contract over the weekend that will increase their wages in step with inflation and extend a prohibition against plant closings for another 18 months.
The agreement with the United Auto Workers was approved by 66 percent of the 3,000 Mack workers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Georgia. The Maryland operations include an engine plant in Hagerstown with 900 workers and a parts distribution operation in Severn with 150 workers.
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