Factories Layoffs

For almost 50 years, the Owens-Brockway glass factory in a gritty section of Pomona has kept 325 workers in skilled manufacturing jobs paying between $11 and $20 an hour. Families were reared on those wages. They put children through college. Bought suburban homes and lived the American Dream. But that dream dies on Thursday when the workers will hang up their hats for the last time and the plant will close.

For almost 50 years, the Owens-Brockway glass factory in a gritty section of Pomona has kept 325 workers in skilled manufacturing jobs paying between $11 and $20 an hour. Families were reared on those wages. They put children through college. Bought suburban homes and lived the American Dream. But that dream dies on Thursday when the workers will hang up their hats for the last time and the plant will close.

Unemployment edged up by one-tenth of a percentage point in November to 5.4%, the highest level since January, and factory jobs declined for an eighth consecutive month as the U.S. economy continued to cool, the Labor Department said Friday.

Madic-Compufact Corp., a computer integration firm, said Thursday that it will merge with San Diego-based DataWorks Corp. The combined company, which will install computer systems in factories, will have $25 million in annual sales, 150 employees and good prospects for additional hiring. No layoffs are expected. Terms of the merger were not disclosed.

Madic-Compufact Corp., a computer integration firm, said Thursday that it will merge with San Diego-based DataWorks Corp. The combined company, which will install computer systems in factories, will have $25 million in annual sales, 150 employees and good prospects for additional hiring. No layoffs are expected. Terms of the merger were not disclosed.

Who or what would you guess a Livingstone Bramble is? A character out of Dickens? A trust officer at the local bank? A village in New Hampshire? A stretch of gorse and heather on the high road in Scotland? A coxswain for the Harvard eight? A railroad depot in the Cotswolds in England? There's no doubt what a Boom Boom Mancini is. It's a second-generation pug out of Youngstown, Ohio, something the tabloid press would tab a left-hook artist.

General Motors got rid of the messenger bearing bad tidings last Monday, when it ousted its chief in-house critic, Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot. But shooting the messenger, so to speak, won't change the fact that the news at the world's largest industrial corporation these days is almost all bad: factories closing, layoffs, weak sales volume, plunging earnings and more.

Unemployment edged up by one-tenth of a percentage point in November to 5.4%, the highest level since January, and factory jobs declined for an eighth consecutive month as the U.S. economy continued to cool, the Labor Department said Friday.