Postal Service agrees to pay back wages

The U.S. Postal Service has agreed to pay roughly $6.5 million in back wages to nearly 900 pilots, co-pilots and flight engineers, ending a 10-year-old wage dispute, the Labor Department announced Monday.

The affected employees worked under various contracts and subcontracts to transport mail by air between January 1996 and August 2001, the department said. The agreement emerged from a dispute over the calculation of wages for flight crew employees.

“Opposition to the disputed proposal to combine the world’s two largest steel manufacturers is softening, the president of Mittal Steel Co. maintained Sunday in defending his firm’s hostile takeover bid for rival Arcelor SA.

Aditya Mittal, who also is chief financial officer of the world’s largest steelmaker, predicted the controversial deal will close by the end of June after gaining approval from European regulators and Arcelor shareholders.

Several European countries are leery of the proposed $22.1 billion (18.6-billion euro) merger, fearing the possibility of job cuts at plants now owned by Luxembourg-based Arcelor, the world’s second-largest steel producer. Mittal Steel is hosting about four dozen reporters, mostly from Europe, on a two-day media tour of its Chicago-area operations, hoping to polish its image by showing where it makes some of its highest-quality steel.

“Avon Products Inc. has received approval to become the first company to resume direct sales in China following an eight-year ban, the Commerce Ministry said Monday.

China banned direct sales in 1998, saying it was hard for consumers to tell the difference between legitimate sales networks and fraudulent pyramid schemes, which were common then.

The government finally issued rules to regulate direct sales in December, clearing the way for Avon and other companies such as cleaning products maker Amway Corp. to apply for licenses.

“Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots brought their informational picket over stalled contract talks to Salt Lake City International Airport on Monday, warning that they may strike if an agreement isn’t reached this spring.

About 50 pilots walked a picket line in front the Delta terminal and handed out pamphlets detailing their grievances.

The Atlanta-based airline filed for bankruptcy protection in September, and the company is seeking wage and benefits concessions from the pilots to help it become solvent.