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United machinists will take pay cuts
CHICAGO >> A federal bankruptcy judge today imposed temporary 14 percent pay cuts on United Airlines' 37,000 machinists, the only employee group to have rejected the carrier's proposal for emergency reductions.The action, which United requested, will help it meet strict financing requirements in bankruptcy by saving an estimated $70 million a month when combined with lower interim wages for other union workers.
Equally as important, it gives the airline and its unions additional time to negotiate long-term contracts by ensuring sharply lower labor costs through May 1.
Pilots agreed earlier this week to take 29 percent pay cuts, flight attendants to 9 percent wage reductions and dispatchers and meteorologists to 13 percent.
Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff said in his court order that the short-term pay reductions were "essential" to continue United's business.
Sony taps newsman as music head
NEW YORK >> Sony chose Andrew Lack, NBC's president and chief operating officer, to take the helm of its music division today, a day after Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola resigned to start a new label.The move was surprising, considering Lack has no experience in the music industry; a veteran newsman, he worked at CBS News from 1976 to 1993 before joining NBC News. He was named president of the entire network in May 2001.
Mottola, who helped develop the careers of former wife Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and others, announced his resignation yesterday, departing amid declining revenues and a lower market share.
Mottola's new label has not yet been named, but Sony is expected to be a partner.
Penney to cut 2,000 catalog jobs
PLANO, Texas >> As it prepared to close all of its remaining Hawaii stores today, J.C. Penney Co. said it will cut about 2,000 mainland jobs and close three facilities in its catalog business, whose sales have fallen sharply over the past year.Penney said it would close a catalog-fulfillment center in Atlanta and telemarketing centers in Atlanta and Lenexa, Kan., by the end of the second quarter.
A Penney spokesman said about 800 jobs at the Atlanta fulfillment center were mostly full-time and most of the roughly 700 jobs at the two call centers were part-time. The remaining job cuts would be spread across four other fulfillment centers and 10 call centers, he said. Penney said it has about 250,000 employees.
Court to tackle commercial speech
WASHINGTON >> Sneaker maker Nike Inc. won the chance today to fight for its image at the Supreme Court.The court said it will use an appeal by the athletic shoe and apparel company to decide how much constitutional protection company executives have when they fend off allegations that they run sweatshops or make dangerous products.
For more than two decades the Supreme Court has struggled to define commercial speech, which gets less protection under the First Amendment than other types of speech like political expression. A coalition of companies, public relations executives and newspapers and television stations had urged the court to try again.
Kmart to present store closing plan on Jan. 28
TROY, Mich >> Bankrupt Kmart Corp. said it expects to finish its evaluation of stores in mid-January, and present its plans to close some of them to the bankruptcy court on Jan. 28, a company official confirmed.Jack Ferry, a company spokesman, said today that affected employees would be the first to learn of the store closures, but declined to comment on how many stores will close.
Analysts speculate there could be between 300 and 593 additional store closures nationwide.
Last March, Kmart closed 283 stores, leaving it with about 1,800 stores. About 22,000 workers lost their jobs.
The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 22.
New Intel Corp. chip will actually be slower
LAS VEGAS >> In a break with its tradition of making ever faster computer processors, Intel Corp.'s newest chip, dubbed Centrino, will be slower than current processors, while giving future laptops longer battery life and built-in wireless networking capabilities.Speaking at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Intel chief executive Craig Barrett said the Centrino microprocessor, chip set and networking technology would be released in the first half of the year.
Barrett said Intel will announce by March which laptop makers will build the Centrino technology into their machines. Intel developed the technology under the code name Banias.
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NEW JOBS
>> Captain Cook & Associates has named Margo Brower director of sales. She will have responsibility for the real estate sales operations of the company.>> Broadband iTV has named Laura Davis Loy marketing communications manager. She was most recently at director of marketing Viata Software Inc. BBiTV offers on-demand videos and shopping information on digital channel 326.
>> Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii Inc. recently appointed Maile Desoto-Carino its new secretary in house construction and Kathleen Evans and Derek Nakakura its new customer service managers. Prior to their appointments, Desoto-Carino served as an office assistant at Aloha Painting Company Inc., Evans was self-employed as a freelance designer as well as a customer service representative with Watt Homes, and Nakakura served as president and treasurer of Nakakura Construction Co. Ltd. and as an estimator/project engineer with Pan-Pacific Construction Co., Ltd. Darlene Ferreira, a Castle & Cooke Homes employee since 1999, recently moved to the Castle & Cooke Design Center as its new assistant. She previously served as a secretary in the company's construction department.
