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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, August 25, 2000

Queen's union ratifies contract

About 560 union workers at Queen's Medical Center have ratified a three-year contract, the Hawaii Teamsters & Allied Workers Local 996 announced today.

The contract, covering blue-collar workers, nurse aides and technicians, will improve wages and benefits, the union said. The Teamsters said the pact was approved by 95 percent of the 305 union members who voted. The contract, retroactive to July, includes wage increases of 2 percent in the first year, 2.5 percent in the second and third years, reduced medical insurance costs, and a new package of severance benefits in the event of layoffs. Queen's has cut more than 100 jobs in the past two years.

Analyst gives nod to BancWest stock

An analyst at Lehman Brothers said today that Honolulu-based BancWest Corp.'s stock price should hit $24 a share within a year, a 38 percent increase from its current price.

In new coverage of the stock, analyst Brock Vandervliet rated First Hawaiian Bank's parent company a "buy." The company's stock price rose 6 cents to close at $17.31. The shares are down 11 percent this year. Of six analysts who cover the stock, including Vandervliet, four rate it a buy and two see it as a hold.

In other news . . .

SAN DIEGO -- SureBeam Corp., a Titan Corp. unit that uses X-ray technology to pasteurize and disinfect foods, has filed for an initial public stock offering. The company's technology is used in a new Hilo plant that prepares papayas for export to the mainland by killing fruit flies.