General Motors Co. on Wednesday named a new plant manager for its Defiance, Ohio, foundry. Thomas A. Gallagher III replaces John Thomas on Jan. 1.
Thomas is retiring, and Gallagher, a graduate of Purdue University, is moving to Defiance from the GM Baltimore Transmission Plant in Maryland.
The Defiance Foundry makes cast-iron V-8 and V-6 engine blocks. It also makes aluminum four-cylinder engine blocks, along with crankshafts, cylinder heads and transmission components. It employs about 1,100.
Wells Fargo to settle securities suit, probes
Wells Fargo & Co. on Wednesday agreed to repay customers about $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit and regulatory investigations alleging the company improperly marketed risky investments as safe.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown sued the San Francisco-based bank last year and the North American Securities Administrators Association launched an inquiry of the bank’s subsidiaries over sales of so-called auction-rate securities. The investments resemble corporate debt, except that the rate of interest they pay is frequently reset at auctions.
Numerous companies, charities and individual investors were told the securities were as safe as cash. But the $330 billion market collapsed in February 2008, and investors’ accounts were frozen.
Provider offering nighttime dialysis
Fresenius Medical Care Fort Wayne Jefferson, 7836 W. Jefferson Blvd., Suite LL10, has begun offering nighttime dialysis treatments.
Dialysis patients typically receive 4-hour treatments three days a week to cleanse impurities from their blood after their kidneys have failed. Patients who spend eight hours receiving dialysis at the center three nights a week effectively gain 12 daytime hours weekly for work, hobbies and family time, the center said in a written statement.
Fresenius Medical Care, which is hosting an open house from 4 to 7 p.m. today, is accepting new patients.
GM, EU to meet on Opel aid, future
The European Union will host a meeting between GM and EU governments next week to discuss restructuring plans and aid for the troubled Opel unit, officials said Wednesday.
EU spokesman Ton Van Lierop said the European Commission has invited member countries that host GM plants to the talks on Monday along with Nick Reilly, the head of GM’s Adam Opel GmbH and Vauxhall divisions.
Governments in several area have voiced deep concerns over the future of thousands of jobs after General Motors Co. reversed a decision to sell Opel.
Union ramping up organizing at T-Mobile
Union officials in the United States are teaming up with their German counterparts in a bid to organize workers at wireless carrier T-Mobile USA.
Leaders at the Communications Workers of America said Wednesday that the new arrangement with German union ver.di will help show a “double standard” between how European companies treat workers in their home countries compared with the U.S.
Peter Dobrow, a spokesman for T-Mobile USA, said employee satisfaction surveys show more than 70 percent of the company’s 40,000 workers are “very satisfied” with their jobs.
