Business in brief: IAM facing vote to decertify
Seattle – Production workers at Boeing’s newly acquired assembly plant in Charleston, S.C., plan to vote Sept. 10 on a petition to get rid of the Machinists union.
At a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Charleston on Tuesday, the company and the International Association of Machinists agreed to the vote.
A decision to decertify the IAM at the Charleston facility could influence whether Boeing will move future airplane assembly work there, including a second production line for its new 787 Dreamliner.
If the vote succeeds, nonunion Boeing Charleston will compete directly with the unionized Everett plant for the new 787 work.
Madoff associate pleads guilty
New York – The former chief financial officer for Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy, admitting he helped Madoff carry out a massive fraud that cost thousands of people billions of dollars by lying to investors and testifying falsely when it seemed the fraud might be discovered.
“I was loyal to him. I ended up being loyal to a terrible, terrible fault,” Frank DiPascali said as he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to charges including securities fraud, falsifying records and international money laundering.
Afterward, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan surprised the defendant, prosecutors and a defense lawyer by ordering DiPascali jailed, a rarity for someone in a white-collar case who had pleaded guilty with a cooperation deal.
The cooperation deal may still earn him leniency against charges which carry a potential penalty of up to 125 years in prison at a sentencing that will not occur before May.
Madoff is serving 150 years in prison for a Ponzi scheme that demolished thousands of people’s life savings.
Oil prices fall on consumer data
Energy prices slumped Tuesday on a Labor Department report that suggested consumer spending, a major economic driver, may be depressed for some time as companies cut back.
Benchmark crude for September delivery fell $1.15 to settle at $69.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the fourth straight day of declines and the first time this month that the price for crude dipped below $69. Meanwhile, the national average for retail gas fell for the first time in three weeks.
Oil prices have ended the week higher for five straight weeks, a period that coincides with earnings reports from U.S. companies. The results appeared surprisingly healthy, which gave energy prices a boost on the belief that the recession has loosened its grip.