Word: demanding
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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With so much overseas demand for high-profile U.S. commercial property, competing foreign bidders practically bump into one another at airports. To increase their already considerable bargaining power, many would-be buyers go to striking lengths to conceal their ultimate intentions. The Japanese Komatsu executives who went shopping in Tennessee for a factory kept their state government hosts completely in the dark about what they actually wanted. After a tour of the 1940s-era structure that eventually housed their heavy-equipment concern, the Japanese pronounced it "very dull and scary, very gloomy," recalls John Gregory, a Tennessee official who escorted...
...reason for the storm warnings is the U.A.W.'s main demand: job security. The autoworkers (average hourly wage: $13.50) are aware that low-cost foreign imports and Japanese-owned U.S. assembly plants make impossible any significant pay hikes by American carmakers. Instead, the union is focusing on the Big Three's shrinking share of the $200 billion U.S. auto market (currently about 70%) and the growing use of foreign suppliers to cut costs. The companies are trying to save money by trimming their domestic labor force, and the U.A.W. has lost more than 400,000 members since 1979. The union...
...They often cite professional image and job marketability as the reasons for smoothing creases or trimming jowls. Explains Dr. Melvyn Dinner, director of the Center for Plastic Surgery in Cleveland: "The 40-year-old who has lost his job is competing with a young hotshot. It's the competitive demand to look youthful...
...South Africa, where a state of emergency has been in effect for more than a year, speculation swirled that the confrontation was political -- an attempt by a feisty black union to flex its muscle. Both sides denied this. "The crucial demand is wages," said N.U.M. General Secretary Cyril Ramaphosa."It's a straightforward industrial relations dispute," agreed Liebenberg...
...stakes are growing larger all the time. In the past two years strong consumer demand has helped push up world emerald prices by almost 30%. A polished, top-grade deep green stone weighing one carat now typically costs $5,000 on the retail market. Colombia exports an estimated $40 million worth of emeralds annually, but that does not account for all the gems that are illegally smuggled out of the country. Both the mining companies and the government lose millions of dollars in revenue because of the unauthorized activities of the guaqueros...