Labor productivity jumps

The U.S. Labor Department released figures March 7 citing a huge jump in labor productivity for the fourth quarter of 1999 as labor costs fell. Productivity, a measure of output for each hour worked, rose at an annual rate of 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter, up from 5 percent in the third quarter. Productivity grew 3 percent for the year as a whole. Both figures are the highest since 1992.  
 

Boeing declares strike impasse

The Boeing company declared an impasse in talks with striking engineers and technical workers, saying it would impose the terms of its final offer on the employees. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) said they are considering asking the Clinton administration to suspend the company's authority to certify airliners.  
 

Blast kills three in Virginia plant

An explosion March 5 at the New River Castings factory, in Radford, Virginia, killed three workers and hospitalized six others. The blast created a hole the size of a football field in the center of the plant, which makes transmissions and other iron parts for the auto industry. Two days earlier workers were evacuated from the building because of a gas leak.  
 

Wal-Mart moves against union

Wal-Mart announced it was closing its meat-cutting operations in 180 stores in six states after workers in its Jacksonville, Texas, store voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union. The meat cutters voted 7 to 3 in favor of union representation, the first at the giant retail distributor. Wal-Mart, notoriously antiunion, denied the closure was related to the union vote.  
 

Court ends rail walkout

A federal district court ordered striking railroad workers back on the job after a four-hour stoppage at Union Pacific Railroad February 24. The workers, members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE), walked out after the bosses unilaterally decided to close a shop that makes track in Laramie, Wyoming. The judge also ordered the company to not lay off any workers at the plant  
 

Amtrak settles discrimination suit

The commuter railroad Amtrak settled a race discrimination suit March 3, filed on behalf of African-American applicants for BMWE jobs on the company's Northeast Corridor. The company agreed to pay $16 million and implement changes in its personnel policies.  
 
 
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