Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
The United Steelworkers and area labor groups will protest free-trade deals today in front of Rep. Mark Souder’s Fort Wayne office.
Street theater featuring a giant “Toxic Trader” puppet and a rally will start at 3 p.m. at 1300 S. Harrison St. in downtown, a statement from the USW said. The rally will be followed by a march to the Allen County Courthouse.
Steelworkers are protesting because of the support shown by Souder, R-3rd, of recent free-trade agreements with Peru and Chile. The union said the agreements lacked protection for workers and the environment.
“If companies operating in the U.S. must obey these rules, then it’s unfair competition when foreign firms don’t,” the statement said.
Souder said in a written statement that he has long opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement, and if he had been in Congress when the law was passed, he would have voted against it.
“I have always stood with the workers of this district,” Souder wrote.
Steel Dynamics Inc. increased its share repurchase program by 5 million shares to demonstrate confidence in the company’s future and to build shareholder value, a company statement said Tuesday.
Since September 2004, Steel Dynamics has repurchased 46 million shares of its common stock. The statement said the company will have the authority to repurchase up to 8.9 million more shares.
The company should be able to pursue this expanded share repurchase program without sacrifice to any of its facility expansion, capital expenditure or growth plans, the statement said.
Steel Dynamics’ stock closed on the Nasdaq up $1.49 at $31.76 Tuesday. The company had more than 190 million shares outstanding at the end of the second quarter, June 30.
Chuck Surack on Tuesday received an Appleseed Award from Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd.
Surack, founder and president of Sweetwater Sound Inc., was recognized for the inclusion of numerous environmentally friendly features in his company’s new $35 million headquarters campus at U.S. 30 and Kroemer Road.
Souder toured the 180,000-square-foot building a few months ago and was impressed by Surack’s effort to reduce energy consumption over the long term and minimize the environmental effects, a staff member in his Washington office said.
The buildings are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design compliant, the first LEED Gold-certified building in Indiana, according to Sweetwater’s Web site.
Northrop Grumman Corp. announced Tuesday it has been awarded a $5.2 million contract from the U.S. Office of Naval Research to develop a signals intelligence product for use on unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Fort Wayne Northrop Grumman location will lead the development, teamed with Swift Engineering Inc. in San Clemente, Calif., the company said in a statement.
It was unclear from the statement whether the contract would create any local jobs. A call to a Northrop Grumman spokeswoman was not returned Tuesday afternoon.
