Nation briefs 04/30/03

Dial settles harassment suit for $10 million

CHICAGO -- Dial Corp. agreed Tuesday to pay $10 million to settle a federal civil suit charging that its female workers were groped, forced to see pornography and called names at a soap-making plant near Chicago.

Lawyers for the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the agreement a day after the case was scheduled to go to trial.

"I think you're going to see a workplace in which the ability of women to work without fear, without experiencing harassment, is going to become a reality," said John Hendrickson, a Chicago-based EEOC regional attorney.

The lawsuit centered around allegations that dozens of employees faced sexual harassment at Dial's Aurora plant, which produces 2.3 million bars of soap daily and employs 350 people.

The company admitted no fault in settling the lawsuit.

Report: Diabetes plagues California's Hispanics

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's large and rapidly growing Hispanic population is developing diabetes at an alarming rate, a problem that poses new threats to a strained public health system, according to a report released today.

The report by UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research said that nearly a quarter of retirement-age Hispanics have been diagnosed with the incurable disease -- twice the percentage of whites and significantly more than Asians.

The study also found that Hispanics are more likely than other populations to be uninsured, making treatment of the disease much more challenging.

Diabetes is an incurable condition characterized by the body's inability to break down sugars in the blood. It is the nation's seventh leading cause of death and the leading cause of adult blindness, kidney failure and amputation of lower limbs.

The report was based on data from a telephone survey of more than 55,000 state residents done in 2001. Respondents self-identified their race.

United flight attendants ratify new contract

CHICAGO -- Flight attendants ratified a contract Tuesday that saves United Airlines $1.9 billion over six years, helping the airline close in on its goal of cutting labor costs by a third while in bankruptcy.

The 18,000 flight attendants, who voted from April 16 through midday Tuesday, accepted an agreement calling for 9 percent wage cuts, changes in work rules and fewer holidays. The pact would save United $314 million a year.

Seventy-five percent of eligible flight attendants voted to ratify the contract, the Association of Flight Attendants announced. Turnout was 63 percent, suggesting the reluctance with which the painful cuts were accepted.

Union president Greg Davidowitch said ratification was necessary but no cause for celebration.

Consumer confidence rises sharply in April

NEW YORK -- Consumers' faith in the economy made its biggest leap in more than a decade in April, buoyed by the swift end of heavy fighting in Iraq.

The Consumer Confidence Index, which had declined for four consecutive months, rose to 81.0 from a revised 61.4 in March, the New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday. That was far better than the reading of 70 analysts expected.

The 19.6-point increase was the largest since March 1991 just after the end of the first Gulf war, when the index recorded a 21.7 point gain to 81.1.

But analysts said a rebound in consumer optimism doesn't necessarily foretell faster economic growth.

"The bottom line is that you can be feeling exuberant, but what counts is what you do, how much you spend," said Oscar Gonzalez, a senior economist at John Hancock Financial Services Inc.

Economists closely track consumer confidence because consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

-- From wire reports