University Briefs

Local 77 negotiations continue

Negotiations between the University and Local 77 continued this week and may not be completed until just before the Sunday night deadline.

The current three-year contract for Local 77 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees expires midnight June 30. The Durham union represents about 850 Dining Services employees, groundskeepers, housekeepers and sanitation workers.

"If history is a guide, negotiations tend to go down to the wire," Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations John Burness wrote in an e-mail. "We may have something sooner, but I wouldn't be surprised if these go down to the wire as well."

Neither party has offered much comment on the ongoing negotiations, but prior meetings have included discussion of pay rates, employee attendance policies and employee training and mobility. The June 1999 contract provided for a 3 percent wage hike each year of the agreement and set standards for attendance.

Enron CEO to speak

Stephen Cooper, the interim chief executive officer of Enron Corp., will headline the inaugural Coach K & Fuqua School of Business Conference on Leadership scheduled for Aug. 21-23. Cooper will join 10 other top executives, men's basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski and Fuqua School of Business Dean Douglas Breeden.

Cooper, a restructuring specialist, will deliver a keynote address titled "Leadership--Emerging from Crisis," detailing the steps needed to turn around a troubled company like Enron.

LEAD is one of the top programs in the country that encourages black, Latino and Native American students to consider business or management as a career, Fuqua officials said. Fuqua professors, staff and students join more than 50 people from sponsoring corporations as volunteers.