Posted on 12/17/2002 7:05:53 AM PST by RCW2001
/sarcasm
Well, I think we can eliminate the hypothesis that these jobs are being shipped overseas...
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - AB Electrolux, the world's leading white goods maker, has been notified of 194 asbestos class action lawsuits involving 14,300 people, Chief Executive Hans Straberg said on Tuesday.
Straberg declined to say whether the lawsuits included claims from at least 13,000 people in more than 25 class action lawsuits in the state of Mississippi, confirmed earlier by a U.S. lawyer.
Shares in Electrolux, which has annual sales in excess of $15 billion and a market capitalization of some $5.7 billion, slumped some nine percent on the news, and hit a month-low of 133 crowns.
The stock was also pressured by an earlier announcement that Electrolux would cut 5,000 jobs and book a 1.37-billion crown ($155.5 million) restructuring charge in the fourth quarter.
The claims against Electrolux are targeted at White Consolidated Industries (WCI), the maker of Frigidaire appliances, and at parent company AB Electrolux.
Electrolux acquired WCI in 1985.
"Is the situation serious, yes. The company is facing a serious number of lawsuits," Gretchen Gentry, a lawyer with the U.S. law firm Daniels & Gentry in Jackson, Mississippi, told Reuters by telephone on Tuesday.
She said 13,000-15,000 people have joined the asbestos class action lawsuits against Electrolux in the state of Mississippi in the past six months. Other U.S. lawyers have also recently talked about a similar number of such cases involving Electrolux.
Asbestos personal injury claims in the United States have cost more than $54 billion in settlements so far and driven more than 60 U.S. companies into bankruptcy.
Alwyn Luckey, whose Jackson-based law firm represents some 3,000 people in five separate class action lawsuits against Electrolux, told Reuters he believed Electrolux should have been notified of the pending asbestos lawsuits.
I have three Electrolux vacuums. One is over 25 years old. It's the only one still working. The other two neither suck nor blow.
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"The Electrolux Group is the world's largest producer of powered appliances for kitchen, cleaning and outdoor use. More than 55 million Electrolux Group products (such as refrigerators, cookers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, chain saws and lawn mowers) are sold each year to a value of approx. 14 billion USD in more than 150 countries around the world." |
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The company does
14 billion dollars worth
of business but still
has to close a plant
in New Jersey. Imagine
how small companies
must be hurting in
the current economy.
Thing have to improve...
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