Business Notes: Jan. 20, 1986

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LABOR Back to the Pits in Anger

It was one of the longest and most violent U.S. strikes since World War II, and it summoned images of the feuding Hatfields and McCoys. By the time it ended last month, the United Mine Workers' 15-month walkout against the A.T. Massey Coal Co. had left one person dead and hundreds wounded, and caused millions of dollars' worth of damage on both sides of the Kentucky-West Virginia line.

Last week the first miners, some of them still bitter against their employer, began to be recalled. "I don't guess this is the way any of us wanted it to end," said Pete Adkins, a collier from Delbarton, W. Va.

The miners say they are angry for many reasons. Just 45 of the 1,100 strikers have so far been brought back, and the company refuses to rehire those who participated in the violence. Several of the mines have been sold or leased to new operators; others have been closed. Workers are also furious over the company's insistence that they return to work under conditions set separately by Massey's 17 subsidiaries, rather than under a single set of terms. Although the war between the firm and the U.M.W. has ended, new skirmishes could soon break out in court.

BROADCASTING Changing Casts at ABC

Executives of both companies expressed great delight last year when Capital Cities Communications (est. 1985 sales: $1 billion) agreed to buy the four-times-as-large American Broadcasting Cos. for $3.5 billion. Still, few experts were surprised last week when Fred Pierce, 52, resigned as ABC president only days after the merger officially took effect.

A 30-year ABC veteran, Pierce became president in 1983. Though he ran the network during the 1970s when it climbed to first place in the prime-time ratings race, Pierce also presided over ABC's recent slump to third place. In an effort to reverse that slide, Pierce last November appointed Brandon Stoddard, who headed the company's motion-picture operations, president of ABC Entertainment. He is expected to keep that post.

Capital Cities moved quickly to replace Pierce with one of its own. It named John Sias, an executive vice president who has been running the Capital Cities publishing division, president of ABC. Pierce will leave ABC a wealthy man. He held stock worth $4 million at the time of the merger, and will receive $2 million still owed him under a contract that runs through 1989.

CORPORATE NAMES From the Plow to the Stars

The U.S. was still a stripling in 1831 when Cyrus McCormick invented the first workable mechanical reaper and went on to form a company, McCormick & Gray, to make and sell the revolutionary machine. By 1902 the firm had merged with four others and was called International Harvester. Last week the company (1985 sales: $3.5 billion) dropped that historic name. International Harvester, which last year sold its farm-implement business to the J I Case division of Tenneco, emerged from a nine-month-long name-lift operation as Navistar International. The new name, a blend of navigate and star, refers to the company's remaining line of business--medium and heavy trucks--and its goal of stellar performance.