Marc Grossman

State labor officials have ruled that pickers at the nation's largest strawberry grower should be represented by separate bargaining units in Oxnard and Watsonville, increasing the likelihood that the United Farm Workers will once again represent pickers in Ventura County. The ruling, affirmed Tuesday by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, clears the way for a June election at the Coastal Berry Co.'s Oxnard operation.

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas has dropped accounting firm Andersen amid questions surrounding its audits of energy trader Enron Corp., but other major hotel and gaming clients said they would stay with the firm for now. Andersen acts as auditor for most of the biggest casino operators in Las Vegas, including MGM Mirage, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Mandalay Resort Group.

Shares of Hilton Hotels Corp. sank Thursday after the company said it will report a larger than expected fourth-quarter loss of about $75 million. The loss is related largely to one-time charges of approximately $200 million in the wake of Hilton's recent takeover of Bally Entertainment Corp. In one case, Hilton said it will take a $125-million charge to retire $1.

Hilton Hotels Corp. on Monday warned Wall Street that its third-quarter earnings will fall below expectations with Asia's continuing financial crises and poor results in its Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos. The Beverly Hills-based company said it expects to report a profit for the quarter ending Sept. 30 in the low 30-cents-a-share range. Most analysts had forecast Hilton to exceed the 35 cents a share--or $91 million--it had generated for the same three-month period last year.

In a decision that could produce a victory for the United Farm Workers union in Ventura County, a state labor judge has recommended that workers at the nation's largest strawberry grower be represented by separate bargaining units in Oxnard and Watsonville. The decision is considered a coup for the UFW, which last June lost a statewide election effort to represent pickers at the Coastal Berry Co. to a rival union, the Coastal Berry of California Farm Workers Committee.

ITT Corp. on Thursday rejected Hilton Hotels Corp.'s sweetened $11.5-billion offer, leaving Hilton to concentrate on its legal options in the nearly 8-month-old takeover saga. New York-based ITT, which owns the Sheraton hotel chain and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, said its board voted unanimously to recommend that shareholders reject Hilton's bid, which ITT described as inadequate.

Hilton Hotels Corp. reported a tenfold jump in fourth-quarter profit on Monday, but cautioned that a slow business travel market and jitters over a possible war with Iraq had pushed the Beverly Hills-based firm to lower its 2003 earnings expectations.

Hilton Hotels Corp., the third-largest U.S. hotel company, is in talks to buy Patriot American Hospitality Inc.'s Summerfield Suites chain and several other hotels for as much as $1 billion, according to people familiar with the situation. Beverly Hills-based Hilton is also discussing an equity investment of as much as $350 million in Patriot, one of the largest U.S. hotel companies and owner of the Wyndham chain, a source said.

Rekindling a battle over unionization at Southern California's largest mushroom farm, a right-to-work group Tuesday accused the United Farm Workers union of illegally collecting dues and threatening workers at the plant. In charges filed with the state's farm labor board, the National Right to Work Foundation alleges that UFW officials intentionally misled workers at the Pictsweet Mushroom Farm in Ventura by telling them they were required to pay full union dues as a condition of employment.

In an effort to reach former farm laborers who are owed pension benefits, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and the United Farm Workers are trying a new approach: public service television ads in English and Spanish. Bustamante, who will begin recording the advertisements today, said he offered to help the UFW in the union's efforts to reach the thousands of aging farm workers who are eligible for pension funds.