Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, April 3, 1998

Workers plan strikes at
3 Japanese airlines

Bloomberg News

TOKYO -- Japan Airlines Co., All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Air System Co. said their employees are planning to strike next week.

An All Nippon spokesman said some workers plan to strike Monday. ANA pilots' union said all flights between Tokyo and Europe and North America on Boeing B747-400 planes would be canceled. ANA has one daily flight between Nagoya and Honolulu.

Spokesmen for JAL, Japan's biggest airline and the largest carrier in Hawaii-Japan service, said some of their pilots and flight attendants may stop work on Thursday. JAL pilots' union said the strike will last 24 hours. ANA's pilots' said their strike may last longer. The pilots' union at JAS said it plans to cancel or disrupt domestic flights for two days from Thursday.

"Salary isn't everything," said a member of the JAL pilots' union, who requested anonymity. "We want to increase our base pay, but we also want shorter working hours to ensure safety."

A 45-year-old pilot in Japan can expect to make 30 million yen a year ($223,130), double the average salary of an equivalent U.S. worker, analysts said.

The airlines said they are in talks to prevent the strikes.

Maui Land's stock rises on 4-for-1 split plan

Shares of Maui Land & Pineapple Co. jumped 19.8 percent today, after the company said it planned a four-for-one stock split.

At the close of trading today, the over-the-counter stock was at $54, up $8.94 from yesterday's close. The Kahului-based company announced yesterday that shareholders will receive three additional shares for each common share they hold as of April 9.

The company said certificates representing the additional shares will be mailed April 30. Shareholders don't need to surrender their existing shares, the company said.

GTE Corp. to eliminate 1,500 jobs worldwide

STAMFORD, Conn. -- GTE Corp. said it will eliminate 1,500 jobs and sell some operations in a realignment aimed at reducing its annual costs by $500 million.

The 1,500 jobs, out of a total worldwide work force of 114,000, will be eliminated through streamlining wireless operations, consolidating staff operations and a previously announced move of the company's headquarters from Stamford to Irving, Texas.

A spokesman for GTE Hawaiian Tel, a GTE Corp. subsidiary, yesterday said it was too early to tell if there will be an impact in Hawaii.

GTE said it plans to sell or find a partner for Airfone, its airplane phone subsidiary.

United, Delta may form alliance -- report

CHICAGO -- United Airlines' parent company and Delta Air Lines are in preliminary talks to form a strategic alliance that could dominate American skies, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

A link would combine UAL Corp.'s United, the nation's No. 1 airline, with Delta, the nation's third-largest, into a powerhouse with an estimated 36 percent of U.S. seat capacity, the newspaper reported, citing sources familiar with the talks.

While a merger is not being discussed, the two sides may agree on a system of code sharing that lets passengers easily transfer from one carrier to another and, in some cases, earn frequent-flier miles on one airline or the other.

Neither airline would comment on the report but both said they are always looking at opportunities for growth.