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HAWAII
Isle dockworkers return to table
Hawaii waterfront workers and their employers went back to the bargaining table yesterday, seeking to nail down details of a new contract for the 500 local members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Neither side would comment late yesterday, except to say that talks were being held.Traditionally, Hawaii longshore workers wait until the ILWU members on the West Coast reach an agreement before finalizing their own. The 10,000 West Coast workers have a tentative agreement, set for ratification in January, and the Hawaii union decided not to wait.
The Hawaii ILWU has worked on day-to-day contract extensions since July with no disruption of shipping. The Hawaii waterfront employers, represented by the Hawaii Stevedoring Committee of the Hawaii Employers Council, are three stevedoring contractor firms -- Hawaii Stevedores Inc., McCabe Hamilton & Renny Co. and Hawaii Trucking and Terminals Inc. -- and shipping line Matson Navigation Co. Matson's mainland-Hawaii competitor, CSX Lines, gets its workers from Hawaii Stevedores.
MAINLAND
United will seek to void contracts
CHICAGO >> Bankrupt United Airlines, facing a Feb. 15 deadline to cut costs or lose the loans that have kept it flying, said yesterday it plans to file a motion today to start the process of voiding labor contracts.The company and its unions called the expected filing "procedural." If granted, the motion would give United and its six labor unions 51 days to agree on $2.4 billion in annual wage cuts or face a judge's ruling on the labor contracts.
United, which says its labor expenses are the highest in the industry, has not provided specifics about its latest cost-cutting proposals.
Union representatives have criticized United for giving them a list of proposed givebacks instead of a complete business plan. Labor groups want to see such a plan before agreeing to cost cuts, Air Line Pilots Association spokesman Dave Kelly said yesterday.
California town sells for $1.8 mil
SAN FRANCISCO >> Frenzied eBay bidding for a tiny Northern California town closed at $1,777,877 today.If the deal goes through, all 82 acres will go to the unidentified buyer who topped the leading bid just seconds before the auction closed. Bridgeville is the first town to be sold on the Web site, according to eBay.
The town, which owner Elizabeth Lapple acknowledged was a fixer-upper, comes complete with a post office, a mile and a half of river bank, a cemetery and more than a dozen cabins and houses. "Your own zip code will now be 95526," the eBay description reads.
JAPAN
Japan output plunges, workers quit market
TOKYO >> Output from Japan's factories and refineries fell more than expected in November, adding to evidence that a short-lived economic recovery has slipped a gear and raising the risk of a return to recession.Even a surprise fall in the unemployment rate from a post-war high was more the result of discouraged workers leaving the job market than a sign of better times to come, economists said.
Despite recent signs of resilience in exports, industrial output fell a preliminary 2.2 percent in November from the previous month, the government said today, much worse than a Reuters poll forecast of a 0.4 percent drop.
It was the third straight monthly drop in output, and by far the heaviest since an export-led recovery began to fade in the second half of this year.
Sharp ends output of Japanese processors
OSAKA >> Sharp Corp., the only existing major manufacturer of Japanese-language word processors, has terminated both their production and shipments, company officials said today.The company's decision will lead to the disappearance from the market of the machines, whose sales once surpassed those of personal computers in Japan due to their low prices and easy operation.
Sharp officials said the company will stock word processor parts for the next seven years or so to provide repair services for machines already sold.
Japanese word processors were first developed by Toshiba Corp. in 1978. The first word processor, JW-10, was put on sale the following year. Japanese word processors dominated the market in Japan in the mid-1980s.
