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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Tuesday, November 21, 2000

Hawaiian Air pilots to set up pickets

Hawaiian Airlines pilots say they will set up informational picket lines at five airports tomorrow, to bring attention to their ongoing contract negotiations.

Picketing will take place at Honolulu, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seattle-Tacoma airports, the Air Line Pilots Association said today. The union contract became open for amendments in February. One issue is the pilots' compensation for operating new Boeing 717 jets, which the airline plans to introduce to interisland service early next year. A strike cannot legally take place until 30 days after the National Mediation Board announces that further mediation is pointless and it has not taken that step.

United: No strike before Christmas

CHICAGO -- United Airlines, the world's largest airline, said today its mechanics could not strike before Christmas despite stalled contract negotiations. "The (National Mediation) Board has set Nov. 27 as the date by which both United and the IAM must make comments to it about the union's request for release from mediation," said Andy Studdert, United's chief operating officer. "That means any 30-day cooling off period could not begin until that date at the earliest." The company was responding to the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers' threat yesterday of a holiday-period strike. United, a unit of UAL Corp., has been in contract talks with the union, which represents United's 15,000 mechanics, since last December.

Lucent stock hurt by accounting error

MURRAY HILL, N.J. -- Lucent Technologies Inc. said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit was overstated because $125 million in sales were recorded improperly. It told investors to ignore an earlier first-quarter forecast while the company investigates its accounting. Shares of the world's largest phone-equipment maker fell $3.38 to close today at $17.56, the lowest level in about three years.

Lucent said it has notified the Securities & Exchange Commission.