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Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, May 19, 2000
Embassy closes office; lays off 45
The Embassy Vacation Resorts time-share business closed the Waikiki sales office for its Embassy Vacation Resort Poipu Wednesday, laying off about 45 workers.They received severance benefits and a few were kept on to operate an activities center elsewhere in the building at 2155 Kalakaua Ave., said Steve Busch, the company's vice president of operations for the Hawaii region.
Busch said sales at the Waikiki office, the off-site headquarters for the 219-unit Kauai resort, had fallen and in the first four months of this year were only half the 1998 level. Sales operations are now centered at the Kauai property.
Waikiki has become more of a budget destination and does not attract enough visitors willing to invest in vacation properties, Busch said.
Contractor settles federal wages case
A mainland construction company working in Hawaii has agreed to pay more than $95,000 in back wages.Turkey Branch Refrigeration will also be barred from participating in federal contracts for three years to settle charges it failed to pay workers as required by federal law.
Turkey Branch was a second-tier subcontractor performing refrigeration work on a new commissary at Schofield Barracks, the U.S. Department of Labor said yesterday.
U.S. trade deficit hits all-time high
WASHINGTON -- America's trade deficit widened to an all-time high of $30.2 billion in March as a record foreign oil bill overwhelmed a rebound in American exports of farm products and autos. The deficit with China narrowed slightly but the trade gap with Japan rose to its highest level this year.The Commerce Department reported today that the overall deficit increased by 5.1 percent from a revised February figure of $28.7 billion. The trade deficit continued to be the one glaring exception to the nation's current economic prosperity. For March, U.S. exports showed a sharp rebound, rising by 2.9 percent to a record $87.3 billion.