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World Business Quick Take

■ Labor
Hyundai, union strike deal
The labor union and management of South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co have reached agreement on higher wages and improved working conditions, ending weeks of strikes, officials said yesterday. The settlement, which came shortly before midnight Tuesday, includes an 8.63 percent wage increase, the introduction of a five-day working week from September and other benefits. As part of the agreement, Hyundai Motor workers were also given a say in management's decision-making process. "The agreement is not final because it requires approval from workers," said Hyundai Motor spokesman Park Chan-Yoo. The carmaker has suffered about 1.3 trillion won (US$1.1 billion) in lost production since labor disputes erupted on June 20.

■ Electronics
Samsung gets Sony deal
Samsung Electronics Co, the world's second-largest chipmaker, will start making and selling Sony Corp's Memory Stick data-storage devices in the third quarter this year as part of a new accord between the two companies. The deal extends an August 2001 production agreement and allows Samsung to sell Memory Stick products under its own brand, the two companies said in a statement. Samsung will also expand its line of mobile phones, DVD players and televisions compatible with Memory Stick. Memory Stick is a chewing-gum-sized data storage device used for consumer electronics products such as personal computers and digital still cameras. It competes for market share with the SD memory card, a postage-stamp-sized device jointly developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Toshiba Corp and SanDisk Corp.

■ Telecom
US may give Sprint the boot
The government is considering suspending business with Sprint because the telecom-munications company overcharged the Justice Department more than US$2 million. The General Services Administration informed Sprint in the last week that the agency's inspector general urged GSA officials to consider barring the company from new contracts, Sprint spokesman James Fisher said Tuesday. Sprint's government contracts are worth more than US$600 million each year. GSA spokeswoman Mary Alice Johnson declined to comment. Suspending Sprint would remove a second major telecom-munications contractor from federal business. GSA last week barred MCI, formerly known as WorldCom, from new federal contracts. Sprint agreed in June to pay US$5.5 million to settle allegations it knowingly defrauded the government by overcharging the Justice Department for telecommunications services between 2000 and last year.

■ Environment
Report blasts Coke plant
Pollution control authorities in the southern Indian state of Kerala yesterday said sludge generated by a Coca-Cola plant and distributed as fertilizer to local farmers was a "hazardous waste." In a report released in the state capital, the Kerala Pollution Control Board said the sludge had "unacceptable levels" of heavy metals that could cause cancer. Board chairman Paul Tachil said the company was ordered not to use the sludge as manure. Tachil said the board would investigate to assess concentrations of heavy metals cadmium and lead found. But, Tachil rejected the demand of Greenpeace that the plant in be shut down.
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