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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Thursday, April 6, 2000

Truckers strike enters 4th month

Striking Teamsters continued to picket Island Ready-Mix Concrete yesterday, as the labor dispute entered its fourth month at Campbell Industrial Park.

Both sides met with a federal mediator on Monday but failed to budge from their positions. Some 15 truck drivers, members of Local 681 Cement Quarry Workers Ready Mix & Dump Truck Drivers, walked off their jobs Jan. 4 after contract negotiations broke down.

Francis Kuhn, president of Island Ready-Mix, yesterday said the company's business has dropped 40 percent since the strike but declined further comment.

Union spokesman Renny Rego said he believes the company is understating its losses, which could approach $2 million in lost sales at project sites where other unions have been turning away Ready-Mix trucks. The company has hired 13 drivers to replace strikers, Rego said.

Chaney Brooks picks new chief executive

Mike Packard, president and chief executive officer of real estate firm Chaney, Brooks & Co. since July 1995, will leave the company at the end of this month to manage a law firm. The company said Ron Teves, president of the company's commercial division, will add the position of CEO to his duties. Chaney, Brooks manages more than 4 million square feet of commercial space in Hawaii.

Mortgage rates fall to 8.20 percent

McLEAN, Va. -- The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage fell this week to 8.20 percent from 8.23 percent a week earlier, according to a survey released today by mortgage broker Freddie Mac. The average rate on a one-year adjustable mortgage, meanwhile, rose to a five-year high of 6.79 percent this week from 6.76 percent last week. The 15-year mortgage average rate fell to 7.83 percent from 7.84 percent last week.