Business in brief: Les Schwab settles with EEOC on hiring claims

Seattle – Les Schwab Tire Centers, one of the largest automotive businesses in the West, has agreed to pay $2 million to settle claims it refused to hire qualified women who applied for jobs changing tires.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the company four years ago in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Slightly more than 200 women – denied “sales and service” jobs in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Utah since 2004 – will be eligible for a share of the settlement, said EEOC regional attorney William R. Tamayo.

Les Schwab, headquartered in Bend, Ore., disputed lawsuit’s allegations and succeeded in having some of the claims – that it failed to promote women to management and failed to provide them with training – dismissed.

The company did not admit guilt in the settlement but did agree to continue anti-discrimination training for employees and to try to hire women in proportion to their numbers within the applicant pool for vacant jobs.

The tire company has 420 stores and 6,600 employees.

Associated Press

747-8 completes initial performance flight tests

Moses Lake – Boeing has finished initial airworthiness testing for its 747-8 Freighter, the latest and largest version of its jumbojet.

Boeing said Thursday that test pilots took the plane to 30,000 feet and conducted stall tests and other maneuvers during 33 hours of flying in 13 flights at Moses Lake. The plane will be pushed higher and faster in future test flights.

Boeing has 76 orders for the new freighter from cargo operators. The first commercial deliveries are expected by the end of the year.

Associated Press

30-year rates hold below 5 percent for second week

Washington – Mortgage rates held below the 5 percent threshold for the second straight week, a report said Thursday.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 4.95 percent this week, down from 4.97 percent a week earlier, mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said.

Rates dropped to a record low of 4.71 percent in December and have hovered around 5 percent since, kept down by a Federal Reserve campaign to stabilize the housing market by lowering mortgage rates.

This week, the average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.32 percent, down from 4.33 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.

Associated Press

BP expanding to Brazil, in Gulf of Mexico, Caspian Sea

London – BP is expanding its dominant oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico and dropping anchor off Brazil with a $7 billion deal to buy exploration rights from Devon Energy.

BP will get the rights for 10 exploration blocks in Brazil and others in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caspian Sea near Azerbaijan. BP also is selling a 50 percent stake in its Kirby oil sands interests in Canada to Devon for $500 million. The companies will form a joint venture as Devon beefs up its North American onshore portfolio.

BP PLC already is the largest leaseholder in the Gulf of Mexico with more than 650 blocks producing more than 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily.

Associated Press