Business today

CORRECTION (8/23/01): Walt Disney World is offering salaried employees the option of reducing their hours and salary by 20 percent as part of a cost-cutting effort. After 90 days, employes can return to a 40-hour workweek if they choose.

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 23, 2001

DISNEY ASKS WORKERS TO WORK LESS: Thousands of salaried workers at Walt Disney World were asked to cut their work week to 32 hours as the company stepped up cost-cutting efforts. The move will mean 20 percent less in their paychecks for 7,400 workers at Disney's parks, hotels and administrative offices. Disney also trimmed the hours of some attractions and restaurants and fired an unspecified number of contract workers. A Disney spokeswoman said the reduced work week was a way to save jobs and that employees would be able to keep insurance and retirement benefits.

TRADE PANEL RULES ON STEEL: Much of the beleaguered American steel industry has been significantly harmed by cheap foreign imports, a U.S. trade panel ruled, taking a first step toward protective barriers that would make most steel costlier for American consumers. The six-member U.S. International Trade Commission found 12 of 33 domestic steel product lines have suffered serious injury because of the imports. Those dozen product lines -- from steel slabs to hot- and cold-rolled steel -- account for 79 percent of the steel produced in the United States. Separately, U.S. Steel reported a narrower than expected third-quarter loss of $23-million, or 28 cents per share. U.S. Steel posted net income of $19-million, or 19 cents a share, a year ago.

NEW SWISS AIRLINE: Swiss government and industry agreed to spend $2.65-billion to create a new national airline on the ruins of Swissair, wrecked by the air travel chaos following the U.S. terror attacks. The plan is to keep 26 jetliners capable of flying to the United States, Asia and Africa and 26 shorter-haul airliners for European flights, as well as 82 smaller planes from the Crossair fleet, the government said. At least 9,000 jobs in the Swissair group are expected to go under the agreed plan. Finance Minister Kaspar Villiger said the salvage operation will put the profitable Crossair subsidiary in charge of the Swissair group. No name has yet been devised for the new airline.

TRADE CENTER INSURANCE DISPUTE: After trying unsuccessfully to negotiate a lower bill, Swiss Re, the biggest insurer of the World Trade Center, filed suit to limit how much it will pay in coverage. Swiss Re has asked U.S. District Court in Manhattan to determine that it and the other insurers are liable only for $3.5-billion because both crashes amounted to a single insurable incident. The real estate executive whose companies hold a 99-year lease on the property, Larry A. Silverstein, contends each of the two hijacked airliners that crashed into the towers constituted a separate attack and has said he will seek $7-billion from insurers.

AOL TIME WARNER REACHES CHINA DEAL: AOL Time Warner Inc. is bringing Chinese state television into American homes in a deal that makes the company the first foreign broadcaster given direct access to Chinese audiences. China Central Television's English-language Channel 9 will be carried by Time Warner cable systems in New York City, Los Angeles and Houston. In exchange, AOL Time Warner said broadcasts of its Chinese-language CETV channel would be begin next year on cable systems in Guangdong province.Financial details were not released.

Z-TEL TO BATTLE VERIZON: Tampa alternative phone company Z-Tel Technologies is taking on giant Verizon Communications in Pennsylvania. Z-Tel said it is challenging the Federal Communications Commission's recent decision to let Verizon sell long-distance service in Pennsylvania. In an appeal filed in federal appeals court in the District of Columbia, Z-Tel says Verizon has discriminated against small competitors by providing them with an inferior billing system that leads to errors in billing customers. Z-Tel, like other alternative phone companies, must access Verizon's local networks to compete.

ACORN TO OPEN ST. PETERSBURG OFFICE: The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, an activist group better known as ACORN, plans to open an office at 1830 49th St. S in St. Petersburg. Recently the group has been in the forefront of campaigns against predatory lending, the practice of lending money at high rates to unsophisticated borrowers. ACORN said its Tampa Bay area activities will begin with membership recruitment, then focus on areas local members consider most pressing.

TAMPA MALL ADDS TENANT: Carolee Friedlander, a jewelry and accessories designer from Greenwich, Conn., will open her second boutique Friday in a storefront at International Plaza in Tampa. Called Carolee, the shop features jewelry, accessories and handbags priced from $45 to $750 that are different than her lines that are carried in department stores.

TREASURY AUCTION: Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities fell in Monday's auction. The Treasury Department sold $14-billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 2.17 percent, down from 2.2 percent last week. An additional $13-billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 2.13 percent, down from 2.16 percent. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors: 2.214 percent for three-month bills and 2.183 percent for a six-month bill. In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills fell to 2.37 percent last week from 2.39 percent the previous week.

American Express

Costs related to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and a restructuring charge conspired to drop income 60 percent in the July-September quarter for the New York financial and travel service company.

Lincare Holdings Inc.

The Clearwater home oxygen provider said it has added 40 new centers in the first nine months of the year, bringing the total to 550. Lincare said demand for its services remains strong despite the economic downturn.

SRI/Surgical Express Inc.

The Tampa surgical supply company said earnings increased 37 percent in the quarter ended Sept. 30 despite the planned reduction of smaller, less profitable accounts in order to focus on higher volume business.

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