Local 5 union members ratify new contract

A new two-year contract has been ratified by members of Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union who work at six major Waikiki hotels.

The contract received the support this past week of 94 percent of the some 5,000 workers at four Sheraton hotels, the Hyatt Regency Waikiki and the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

The workers will receive a 3 percent pay raise, or at least 40 cents an hour, in the first year of the contract and a 45-cent an hour boost in the second year.

Management also agreed to temporarily suspend replacing union workers with subcontractors.

A tentative settlement was reached May 7, just hours before a work stoppage that would have coincided with the start of the Asian Development Bank meetings.

The two-year contract is retroactive to March 2000, meaning the new pact will expire next February.

Hawaii picks up in survey of U.S. summer travelers

Hawaii gained this year in the minds of American travelers, moving up to tie for third place on their wish list for summer vacations, according to a survey by the Travel Industry Association of America. This year 12 percent of the Americans surveyed rated Hawaii as the place they would most like to visit this summer, after Florida, 34 percent, and California, 32 percent, and tying with New York.

At the same time last year, Hawaii was in fifth place as the favorite of 9 percent of those surveyed, after Florida, California, New York and Texas.

The association, which questioned 1,300 people and combined the results with a seasonal travel forecasting model, said that despite worries over the U.S. economy and high gasoline prices summer travel this year is expected to be slightly above last year.

ML Macadamia names new operating head

ML Macadamia Orchards, the publicly traded partnership that grows macadamia nuts on more than 4,000 acres of Big Island land, appointed a new operating chief. He is Dennis J. Simons, now executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Simons, who was chief financial officer at Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp., the main customer of ML Macadamia, replaces Greg Sprecher, who is leaving ML Macadamia to move to the mainland.

ML Macadamia also said it will close its Honolulu headquarters at the end of this month, moving its administrative functions into the company's accounting offices in Pahala on the Big Island.

[WINNERS]

Ticket Plus, which has signed a contract with the military to provide on-base ticket sales on Oahu and Kauai. The deal, which is the first to include all four armed services branches, could expand to include other sites, and may add up to 130 jobs for the Hawaii-based Ticket Plus. The deal also gives members of the military easier access to a greater number of tickets.

<< Kamehameha Schools, which earned nearly $1 billion from its investments for the 2000 fiscal year. The trust gained a significant portion of that from its sales of stock in Goldman Sachs Group Inc., as well as through its other investments. Total revenue came in at $995.6 million, an 18.7 percent increase over the year before.

Investors picked up some good news this week, as both the Dow and the Nasdaq returned to life following the Federal Reserve's decision to drop interest rates by 0.5 percentage point. The Dow Jones industrial average crossed the 11,000 mark for the first time since September and the Nasdaq showed some strength in the face of continued poor first-quarter earnings.

[LOSERS]

The poor souls in the millionaires club, who are getting lonely. About 80,000 people around the world lost their millionaire status last year, thanks to the tech bomb that annihilated the "minute millionaires" by gutting the Nasdaq.

In 2000, the number of millionaires worldwide rose by 180,000 to 7.2 million, before falling back this year. Collections will be taken at various espresso bars throughout the Bay Area.

Farmers on the Big Island saw their suit against DuPont Co. get dragged out further by federal District Judge David Ezra, who referred a key question to Hawaii Supreme Court. More than four years into the case, over documents and evidence DuPont hid away from an earlier suit, there is still a long way to trial.

>> Sukamto Sia, his brother, his girlfriend and the rest of the gang, who are getting the indictments piled on. The erstwhile Indonesian financier was on the receiving end of more slings and arrows from the feds, who now name Sia in more than 20 indictments, including bank fraud, wire fraud and bankruptcy fraud.

[TAKING NOTICE]

NEW JOBS

>> William Bennett has been named VIP services manager at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel. He was formerly with The Starkey International Institute for Household Management in Denver, Colo.

>> Assistant U.S. Attorney Constance Hassell has been named the U.S. Attorney's point of contact for the state's Weed and Seed Program. She replaces former U.S. Attorney Steven Alm. Previously, Hassell was a staff attorney for the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

>> First Hawaiian Bank hired John O. Barton II as a trust business development officer. Also hired were Francisco Javier Castro, vice president, retail loan division; Ronald C.M. Chang, assistant vice president and business banking officer, Kapiolani banking center; Terry Kawamoto, real estate loan officer, branch residential loan department; Doris S. Koshi, real estate loan officer, branch residential loan department; Bonnie L. McCaffery, personal banking officer, Haleiwa branch; Raymond I. Nakagawa, assistant vice president and business banking officer, main banking center; and Robert Y. Ohr, personal banking officer, Wailuku branch.

>> Jeanne W. Hiroshige has been named human resources manager at Hawaiian Host Inc. Previously, Hiroshige was director of human resources at Sports Shinko (Hawaii) Ltd.

Promotions

>> Karen St. John has been named assistant dean of academic advising at the Graduate Service Center of Hawaii Pacific University. She will be responsible for supervising academic counseling activities for graduate students. St. John joined HPU in 1986.

RECOGNITION

>> Kay Garcia of the Wailuku Federal Credit Union was named Credit Union Employee of the Year by The Hawaii Credit Union League at its annual convention last month.

Garcia was cited for exemplary service in her daily duties, as well as while spearheading projects such as the credit union's annual meeting and fund-raising for Children's Miracle Network.

Mitsugi Inaba of the Hawaii Community Federal Credit Union was named Credit Union Volunteer of the Year for his 52-year involvement with his credit union.

Wallace Watanabe, president and CEO of Honolulu City & County Employees' Federal Credit Union, was named Credit Union Professional of the Year. Watanabe was described as a defender of credit union ideals. The Hawaii Credit Union League is the trade association for credit unions in Hawaii and Guam.