Business news digest

REGION

Workshop to focus on wind-energy market

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning Valley manufacturers can learn about business opportunities in the wind-energy market during a half-day workshop at 8 a.m Thursday presented by Great Lakes WIND Network. It will be in the McKay Auditorium of the Beeghly College of Education at Youngstown State University. YSU is sponsoring the event with the WIND Network, which is presenting seminars across the state.

The workshop is open to businesses that produce power electronics, control systems, hydraulics, fasteners, brakes, blades, as well as supplemental items. Operators of foundries, forges, machine shops and fabricating plants also are welcome.

The cost is $30. To register, call (216) 588-1440, Ext. 126, or e-mail dholody@wire-net.org.

Union continues strike at American Standard

SALEM — No new talks have been set as about 340 union workers continued their strike Monday at the American Standard plant in Salem.

Rick Hands, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 1538, said he had heard a couple of union members went back to work, but he hadn’t confirmed it. A company spokeswoman said that some union workers were on the job but that she didn’t have a number. The company was welcoming strikers who wanted to return to work Monday.

The workers walked off the job Friday, saying they could not accept the company’s contract offer, which included a pay cut, reduction in the company’s 401(k) contributions and an increase in health-care contributions.

Salem company to ship 6 generators to well sites

SALEM — MWM of America is shipping six generators today from its Salem office on Prospect Street. The large devices are contained in trailers and are being sent to well-drilling sites in the western U.S. The local office is a sales and service office that has refurbished the generators. It employs six.

Coal bed methane is a byproduct of oil and natural-gas drilling. Instead of burning off this gas, the driller feeds it into the MWM device. The gas fuels the generators, which in turn produce electricity that runs the wells.

MWM also said that it plans to expand its Salem office to complete the final assembly and testing of large systems before they are shipped. MWM is based in Norcross, Ga., but is a subsidiary of MWM GmbH of Germany.

From Vindicator staff reports