PNC's new mortgage activity

PNC Financial Services Group said yesterday that it would offer mortgages in the Washington, D.C., area through a joint venture with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. PNC said it would offer the mortgages through its branches, its PNC Advisors offices, and its call center. It said it will expand the mortgage service to all PNC markets in the fall. The partnership with Wells Fargo replaces one entered into in 2003 between the PNC and a joint venture of Cendant Corp. and PHH Corp., a PNC spokesman said.

AFL-CIO loses another union

Unite Here, a union claiming 450,000 members in the hotel, gaming, laundry and apparel industries, said yesterday that it was leaving the AFL-CIO and would redirect much of its $4 million in annual dues payments toward organizing new members. Unite Here is a member of the Change to Win Coalition, a dissident labor group that has criticized the AFL-CIO for its failure to reverse the long decline in union membership. It joins the Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Carpenters union in leaving the federation.

Also in business ...

Mylan Laboratories said it received Food and Drug Administration approval to market a generic version of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Glucophage XR diabetes treatment ... Vincent J. Delie Jr. has joined First National Bank of Pennsylvania as president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh region. Delie previously was an executive vice president at National City Bank of Pennsylvania ... The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said it would use a wireless technology developed by North Side-based tech firm Helium Networks to support a program for the administration of bedside medication ... Bombardier Inc. said it was awarded a contract from the Brussels, Belgium, transport authority for 22 trams. The order brings the total number of trams ordered by the transport authority to 68 ... PDG Environmental Inc. said fiscal second-quarter net income rose 27 percent to $374,000, or 3 cents per diluted share, up from $295,000, or 2 cents per diluted share, a year ago. Revenue rose 8 percent to $16.3 million ... Nova Chemicals Corp. and Grupo Idesa said they agreed to form a joint venture in Mexico to produce expandable polystyrene. Production is expected to begin Oct. 1 at Grupo Idesa's plant in Apizaco, Tlaxcala.