Printing plant will
move jobs into Kapolei
When the Honolulu Advertiser's new $82 million production plant starts rolling out newspapers in mid-July next year it will bring more than 200 well-paid employees to the Kapolei area.
About 30 jobs will be lost to automation, but unions have agreed to early retirement plans and other incentives for those workers, Advertiser executives said yesterday.
The new presses are scheduled to arrive in October, production executive Bill Bogert told a breakfast meeting of the Hawaii chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. They will be highly automated, using robot machines to load the rolls of paper and an electronic cart system to move printed newspapers aboard waiting trucks.
That automation eliminates the need for some employees, and Bogert said that was one reason the recent labor negotiations at the paper, owned by Virginia-based Gannett Co., were so protracted. More than a year after their old contracts expired, unions at the Advertiser last week ratified new contracts that include provisions to cover those who will not be needed.
Those who decide they don't want to go to Kapolei will continue to work the old presses until the switchover in July, while others will be training at Kapolei, said Mike Fisch, Advertiser publisher.
No plans have been drawn up for what will happen to the old printing and distribution buildings in Kakaako, he said.
The main Advertiser building, opened in the late 1920s, will be renovated, he said. Editorial, sales and administrative staff will stay there while printing and production jobs will move to Kapolei, he said.
Bogert said the target date to push the "start" button the new presses is July 19.
