Business in brief: GM to eliminate line of trucks
DETROIT – After unsuccessfully trying to find a buyer for four years, General Motors Corp. is giving up on its medium-duty truck business, saying that it will wind down manufacturing by the end of July.
That means GM will stop making the GMC Topkick and Chevrolet Kodiak commercial trucks at its Flint, Mich., assembly plant by July 31.
The plant employs 2,100 people but also makes Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups.
Company spokesman Jim Hopson said 398 people work on the medium-duty assembly line, and GM is working with the United Auto Workers to determine what happens to them.
McDonald’s sales rise in May
NEW YORK – McDonald’s Corp. said Monday its same-store sales climbed 5.1 percent in May, boosted by strong international sales but weighed down by slower sales growth in the U.S.
The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company said U.S. same-store sales climbed 2.8 percent, helped by classic menu items and its new McCafe espresso-based coffees.
In May last year, the company’s same-store sales rose 4.3 percent in the U.S.
Globe to impose 23 percent pay cuts
BOSTON – The Boston Globe said it will impose a 23 percent wage cut in the wake of its largest union rejecting $10 million in annual pay and benefit cuts that the newspaper’s parent, the New York Times Co., said were needed to keep the paper from shutting down.
The Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents 700 editorial, advertising and business employees, voted 277 to 265 Monday against the new contract negotiated after the Times Co., said it needed $20 million in annual savings from Globe unions – half from the Guild.
In a statement released after the vote, the Globe said it had informed the union that as a result of the rejection of the contract, it has reverted to its alternative proposal and will impose a 23 percent wage reduction for all Guild members next week.
Construction starts on massive tunnel
NORTH BERGEN, N.J. – Construction began Monday on the nation’s largest transportation project, an $8.7 billion tunnel that’s expected to double the number of rail commuters it can shuttle between New Jersey and Manhattan during peak rush periods.
Some commuters will shave 15 minutes or more off their commute times each way because they no longer will be required to switch trains to reach Manhattan, according to NJ Transit.
The 8.8 mile-long fourth rail tunnel under the Hudson River will require the removal of 2 million cubic yards of rock and soil – roughly a third as much as the Hoover Dam – and will take eight years to build.
“This is an incredible project,” New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine told a crowd of 750 people at a ceremony Monday in northern New Jersey. “In today’s economic recession, it has the added value of creating 6,000 new jobs day in and day out for the next six or seven years.”