Industry report...

Auto supplier Johnson Controls Inc. said fourth-quarter profit rose 4%, boosted by increased sales from its acquisition of Delphi Corp.'s automotive battery operations.

Net income rose to $283.8 million, or $1.45, in the three months through Sept. 30, compared with $273 million, or $1.41, a year earlier, Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls said in a statement. Sales increased 7.2% to $6.9 billion.

The increase was led by gains at the company's battery unit and a division that makes air conditioning and security systems for commercial buildings. Johnson Controls, which gets more than three-quarters of its revenue from auto parts, has remained profitable in 2005 -- while many rivals have lost money -- by expanding outside the North American parts market.

A lawyer for a General Motors Corp. computer engineer who works in Pontiac argued Monday before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the automaker discriminated against him when it refused his request to form a company-sponsored Christian group.

John Moranski, 43, sued GM last year, alleging religious discrimination. Moranski wanted to form a group, similar to nine employee affinity groups for veterans, women, gay men and lesbians, disabled people and racial or ethnic minorities.

For employees such as Moranski, an evangelical Christian, religious faith is their "main identifying characteristic," similar to race, gender or sexual orientation, lawyer David Gibbs told the court.

GM denied Moranski's request because it prohibits any group that advocates a particular religious or political position.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Equal Employment Advisory Council, a group representing 325 major corporations, filed a brief in favor of GM. The brief argued that requiring companies to permit religious groups would have a chilling effect on affinity groups because some employers would discontinue them altogether.

Most Fortune 500 companies have affinity groups, and some, including Ford Motor Corp., allow religious employee groups.

A worker at Delphi Corp. angry with CEO Steve Miller briefly listed his boss for sale on eBay for $1. "Do you have pensions, retirees and workers you need to dump into Third World wages? Well Steve is your man!" Todd Jordan, who works at Delphi's plant in Kokomo, Ind., said on the posting for Miller on the Internet auction Web site. Bidding for Miller rose to $1.50 before ebay removed the listing Monday afternoon. Ebay spokesman Hani Durzy said it violated the Web site's "policy against selling humans, human parts and human remains."

Cendant Corp., the conglomerate planning to split into four companies, said third-quarter profit fell 13% after the company spun off some units and lost business because of Hurricane Katrina.

Net income at the owner of the Days Inn hotel chain, Orbitz online travel agency and Avis rental-car business fell to $514 million, or 49 cents a share, from $593 million, or 56 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose to $5 billion from $4.5 billion, the New York-based company said in a statement.

Sixteen people accused in the sale of illegal tax shelters, including 15 former executives of KPMG LLP, the No. 4 U.S. accounting firm, pleaded innocent in Manhattan federal court Monday to fraud, in what prosecutors say may be the biggest criminal tax case ever.

Ten defendants, including a onetime KPMG finance chief and another man accused in the sale of illegal shelters, were named in an indictment last week that added new allegations and brought to 19 the total number of people charged in the case. All are charged with engaging in a scheme to deprive the United States of $2.5 billion in tax revenue.

Michigan Heritage Bancorp Inc. earned $254,000, or 17 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2005. The Farmington Hills-based holding company earned $243,000, or 16 cents per share, in the same period last year.

FedEx Freight East will pay $500,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over allegations the company discriminated against black dockworkers in St. Louis, the EEOC said.

FedEx Freight East is a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., which acquired American Freightways in 2001.

The EEOC sued in 2003 on behalf of 20 blacks who worked for American Freightways Inc. at the time of the alleged bias. The EEOC said blacks were denied promotions from part-time to full-time jobs at the company's trucking terminal in St. Louis.

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