Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, October 23, 1996
Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, October 23, 1996
The local phone company, which employs 2,200 unionized workers statewide, said it aims to eliminate 29 positions through the early-retirement offer. Gerald Okamoto, Hawaiian Tel's director of Human Resources, said the reductions will make the company more efficient as it competes with new mainland telecommunication companies.
Under the proposal, workers who opt for early retirement will receive a big, lump-sum cash payments. Employees with 25 years to 29 years of accredited services will receive a one-time payment of $29,420, Okamoto said. Those with 40 years of service or more, will get a lump-sum payment of $39,500, he said.
Workers who retire before Dec. 31 will not have to pay any premiums for their post-retirement medical benefits, Okamoto said. Employees have until Nov. 6 to accept the offer.
George Waialeale, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1357 criticized the move, saying it will mean a loss of jobs in Hawaii and could affect the company's service in this new era of competition.
"To give the best service possible you have to have local people doing it," Waialeale said. "We want to keep the jobs for local people."
The offer comes after the union members last month ratified a new union contract giving them an 11.3 percent base-pay increase over the next three years.
The shares sold for $200,000, or 50 cents each, under a deal reached in May between the two companies. The buyer, Helsinki-based Cultor Ltd., is supporting Aquasearch in its development and production of astaxanthin, a red pigment from microalgae grown in ponds at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii at Keahole, on the coast north of Kona.
Mark Huntley, Aquasearch president and chief executive, also said a recent shareholders' meeting approved increasing his company's authorized stock to 100 million shares, from 50 million. The company said stock will sold from time to time to finance production expansion.
The company's stock closed today unchanged at 39 cents on the over-the-counter market.
Maeda Hawaii says delays by city officials in responding to instructions and changes in plans for the renovation of Blaisdell Exhibition Hall caused them to lose money.
City officials say there's no way the company's loss can be that high. A City Council committee has approved a plan to spend $50,000 for an attorney to handle the matter in mediation.
The city dedicated the renovated exhibition hall in September 1995, saying at the time that the project was completed on time and on budget at just under $15 million.
Beyond simply the No. 2 job, AT&T made it clear that John R. Walter will succeed chairman Robert E. Allen, who plans to step down in 1998.
"All anyone really knows about AT&T's future is it will be radically different from the present, and clearly from the past," Walter, 49, said today. "So to assume a leadership role at AT&T is really the opportunity of a lifetime."
Wall Street was somewhat less excited about AT&T's choice to fill the key vacancy, created when Alex J. Mandl caught the industry unaware and abruptly resigned in August. AT&T's shares fell $2 to close at $37.75.