Factory Conversions

The Bush Administration plans to encourage U.S. companies to invest millions of dollars of their money and some of their best technology in the Soviet defense industry--to help convert it to civilian production and private enterprise. Donald J. Atwood, deputy U.S.

For years, as far as Vida Kewin was concerned, working in a factory meant twisting copper wires into cables as they rolled past her, hour after boring hour, on an assembly-line conveyor belt. No more. Today, at the GTE Communication Systems plant in an industrial suburb west of Chicago, the traditional assembly line, with its repetitive, high-stress, rote application of a single task, is obsolete.

President Clinton unveiled a $19.5-billion long-range plan Thursday to help the defense industry adjust to cutbacks in the military budget, saying it would help the economy bounce back and bring "a new century of strength, growth and opportunity." As expected, however, the program would provide little immediate relief for laid-off defense workers and firms affected by cuts and base closings. Under the plan, Clinton will release $1.

The Commerce Department plans to present Los Angeles with $4.5 million in federal grants today aimed at rejuvenating poor communities and repairing economic damage from the riots. In addition, it will announce that it is willing to provide $5.6 million to help local defense firms convert to peacetime production and to generate jobs for people who become unemployed as a result of defense spending cuts.

A coalition of community activists on Thursday urged the City Council to override the mayor's veto of a proposal to convert the historic May Co. building into a colossal garment-making plant. The plea came at a news conference orchestrated by owners of the property--now called the Broadway Trade Center--and their lobbyist, former City Councilman Art Snyder, as a political pressure tactic in what has become a fractious issue at City Hall. The developers, who paid about $25.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, struggling to maintain central control over Soviet political and economic life, plans to transform 550 armament factories to civilian production, a spokesman said Friday. Gorbachev and top aides met to complete the conversion plan as representatives of seven Soviet republics agreed to bypass central authorities in working out a new system of economic and political cooperation.

A classified Energy Department report seeking $80 billion for modernizing and cleaning up the nation's nuclear weapons production plants was withheld from congressional committees last week by White House officials who are skeptical of the high price tag, according to a senior budget official.

In an ambitious bid to create jobs and reduce smog, a group of Los Angeles elected officials, entrepreneurs and labor unions is seeking to make Burbank the hub of a future electric car industry in Southern California. A driving force in the campaign is a Monrovia aerospace firm that is coordinating an effort to build a prototype high-tech electric vehicle later this year with components from California manufacturers.

"Job creation" is a sweet phrase for economists and politicians, and City Councilman Richard Alarcon used it Monday to talk about the Voit Cos. and Selleck Properties deal to buy 68 acres of the old General Motors assembly plant in Panorama City. Three and a half years after GM's last car rolled off the assembly line, the Voit Cos.