NATION

NATION
Goodyear workersapprove 3-year pact
PITTSBURGH -- Goodyear Tire & amp; Rubber Co. employees approved a proposed three-year contract, allowing the nation's biggest tire company to contain health care, benefit and wage costs in return for job security, company and union officials said Monday. The agreement was approved by about 70 percent of the United Steelworkers' Goodyear employees who voted and all but one of the company's 14 union locals. The contract covers at least 16,000 employees at 14 plants, plus about 22,000 retirees.
Allstate asks judgeto throw out lawsuit
PHILADELPHIA -- Lawyers for Allstate Insurance Co. asked a federal judge Monday to throw out a suit accusing the company of age discrimination, while the plaintiffs asked for their complaint to be certified as class action. The suit, filed two years ago, contends that 6,400 agents with a median age of 50 were improperly converted from company employees to private contractors with few benefits in 2000. Allstate maintains the job reclassifications were part of a program to save $600 million a year and weren't intended to get rid of older workers.
Associated Press