News Briefs

o New Balance has been facing pressure from UNITE, a labor union representing 250,000 workers in the textile and apparel industries throughout the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. The union claims New Balance's U.S.-based factories are being run in sweat-shop-like conditions as are factories that make New Balance footwear in China. Company president Jim Davis did not respond directly to the charges but said they are an attempt to influence on-going negotiations between New Balance and the union. Davis noted that in a voting block of 72 employees at its Lawrence, MA, factory, thirty-seven voted to join the Union. "However, a clear majority of the employees at this facility have indicated they do not want to be forced to pay union dues," he said. "I will not force my employees to pay union dues if they do not want to pay them."
o Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss is renegotiating his contract with Nike, which wants to do more with him...Mark McGwire has been wearing Nike shoes without a contract. That's changing. He's signed a two-year deal.
o Ride Sports went into the black in Q2. Net income was $900,000 on sales of $16.1 million, compared to a net loss of $12.9 million on sales of $10.7 million. On a YTD basis, net income was $2.4 million on sales of $34.5 million vs. a loss of $12.3 million on sales of $28.9 million. "We are pleased with our performance in [Q2]," stated Robert Marcovitch, CEO. "This is the first time since '95 that Ride has generated a profit in the period ending Dec. 31."
o According to the Y2K report in the January '99 edition of Business 2.0, with the exception of South Korea, 50 percent of Asian companies will suffer at least one mission critical system failure at the turn of the Millennium. In most countries the number is closer to 66 percent. In Japan, two-to-three-million-person months of labor will be required to alleviate the bug on an economy-wide basis. Even if Asia starts pulling out of recession in '99, Y2K is probably going to send it back to square one, the magazine said.
o Converse is using a state-of-the-art coding and tracking system to thwart parallel and counterfeit Converse product from reaching the marketplace. All its canvas products will be coded on the tongues.