Union

The Justice Department has signed an agreement to end five years of intensive oversight of the nation's largest union of hotel workers. Justice Department officials signed the agreement Friday after a court-appointed federal monitor found that the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union had been largely purged of its ties to organized crime. In the agreement, Justice Department officials and a federal judge in New Jersey praised the cleanup and said they would look to the union's internal ethical practices board to play a strong watchdog role.

A judge is scheduled to decide today whether to grant a permanent restraining order against union workers protesting at the Arundel Mills construction site. Circuit Judge Robert H. Heller heard closing arguments yesterday from lawyers representing Carpenters Union Local 101 and Whiting-Turner Contracting Corp., construction manager for the 1.2 million-square-foot mall in Hanover. After an Anne Arundel police officer was injured by a rock thrown by protesters last Thursday, the union agreed to stop picketing at the site until the judge rendered a decision.

While some 200 demonstrators marched outside in protest, shareholders of First Union Corp. and First Fidelity Bancorp. voted overwhelmingly yesterday to merge, creating the sixth largest banking company in the country and the fourth biggest in Maryland.Eighty-nine percent of First Union shareholders approved the merger, while 99 percent of First Fidelity shareholders gave it their blessing.The merger, which is expected to close by January pending approval from the Federal Reserve Board, will create an East Coast giant operating under the First Union name with $126 billion in assets and nearly 2,000 branches in 12 states and Washington, D.C. Its holdings will stretch from Connecticut to Florida serving 11 million customers.

John Sweeney, national president of the AFL-CIO, will be the featured speaker tonight at an East Baltimore rally for members of the Service Employees International Union, who are bargaining for new contracts for about 2,500 workers at four area hospitals. Robert Moore, president of the union's District 1199E-DC, said the union views the rally as "a kickoff to set the tone" among members for bargaining and a way to "reach out to nonunion workers." The union is seeking to expand its membership at the hospitals where it already has contracts, as well as to gain bargaining rights at other hospitals.

First Union Corp. and First Fidelity Bancorp. said yesterday that they have finalized their merger, creating a mega-bank with offices in 12 states, including Maryland, where it will have 52 branches and $3.5 billion in deposits.Joseph A. Cicero, who headed Newark, N.J.-based First Fidelity's Baltimore unit, was named the area president of First Union's Baltimore region.A year ago, First Fidelity acquired Baltimore Bancorp, where Mr. Cicero was chief financial officer.The merger creates the nation's sixth-largest banking company with estimated assets of $126 billion.

In an unusual move, BUCS Federal Credit Union has applied with a federal regulator to become a savings and loan.The Owings Mills-based credit union filed an application with the savings and loan industry's regulator, the Washington-based Office of Thrift Supervision, to become a mutually owned thrift.BUCS Federal would become only the third credit union to drop its charter and convert to a thrift, officials with the government and the credit union said.Herbert J. Moltzan, BUCS' president and CEO, said board members agreed to the switch because credit unions are bound by laws that restrict expansion.

First Union Corp. said yesterday that its earnings slipped 6 percent in the third quarter after it paid a one-time assessment of $86 million to the federal government to finance the rebuilding of the fund that insures savings and loan deposits.Had it not been for the charge, the Charlotte, N.C.-based First Union would have earned $442 million in the quarter, or $1.60 a share, compared with $376 million, or $1.36 a share, for the same period a year ago."We feel great about this quarter because of the strong revenue growth we are seeing," said Robert Atwood, First Union's chief financial officer.

The Sparrows Point shipyard workers' union yesterday filed charges of unfair labor practices against Bethlehem Steel Corp., the yard's owner, and WHX Corp., the prospective buyer, and asked the federal government to block the sale of the yard.In charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board in Baltimore, the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers accused both companies of failing to bargain in good faith and discriminating against the yard's union work force. The union is seeking an injunction to block the sale of the BethShip Inc. yard.

Employees of local catering giant Martin's Inc. are threatening to strike over health benefits this weekend, just days before New Year's Eve. If there is a strike, the parties will go on and patrons will get service, "in the Martin's manner to which they've become accustomed," said Cindy Friesner, an assistant to Martin Resnick, chairman of the board of Martin's. Martin's owns seven catering facilities in the Baltimore-Washington area. Roxie Herbekian, head of Local 7 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, said about 200 of the roughly 300 Martin's employees in the union are scheduled to work this weekend.

First Union Corp. said yesterday that earnings jumped 21 percent in the second quarter as the company experienced a surge in income from products ranging from loans to mutual funds.The nation's sixth-largest banking company earned $436 million in the second quarter ended June 30, or $1.55 a share, compared with $359 million, or $1.30 a share, for the same quarter last year."All around it was a rock-solid quarter," said Anthony J. Polini, a banking analyst with New York-based Advest Group.