A forum for Hawaii's
business community to discuss
current events and issues
» Isle projects = isle jobs? » Ways to control spam » Shopping savvy for Easter
BACK TO TOP |
KIP AOKI / KAOKI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Isle projects = isle jobs?
Project labor agreements give unfair
advantage to unions and rob local workers
of jobs and the state of tax dollars
Decisions are being made this year that will drastically affect local contractors and workers hoping for jobs on federal construction projects to be funded on an unprecedented scale in Hawaii. These decisions center on whether military housing privatization contractors Actus Lend Lease and Hawaii Military Communities LLC will negotiate project labor agreements (PLA) for their multiyear, multibillion-dollar projects.
The fact that Fluor Hawaii LLC has already reached such an agreement for its Ford Island project suggests more may be on the way.
To understand the impact of this, you'll need some basic information. The PLA is presented as a way to have order, discipline and systematic controls in place so that a construction project can happily bounce along without interruptions or disputes.
This is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. PLAs have historically been troublesome, and the real intent is to see that the federally funded areas of the construction industry are monopolized by organized labor. PLAs aren't written to keep the peace on job sites.
If the government housing entities choose to impose a PLA, I predict we will see a large importation of out-of-state workers.
Under a PLA, the company that owns the project requires that all workers join one of the unions, or have their employers pay directly into the union's trust accounts, in order to work on a job site. The majority of construction workers in Hawaii no longer want to be a part of, or have never been a part of, any unionized work force within this industry. Therefore, when the local union work rolls are exhausted under a PLA , unionized out-of-state workers are imported. These workers compete with local residents for local jobs, affordable housing and government services without fully supporting the local tax bases.
If you allow nonunion craftsmen to work without the required conversion, most of the work could be covered by our own residents. With union and nonunion having shares of the work, I doubt there would be a need for any national call-out.
As citizens, contractors and builders who make Hawaii our home, we have witnessed the "boom and bust" cycles in the local construction industry. We call on the privatization companies and our local Hawaii representatives to eliminate these union-only restrictions and allow all of Hawaii's workers a chance to participate.
Forcing contractors to adopt a union-only PLA slants the playing field in favor of unionized shops, an ever-shrinking minority of the labor pool. In order to stay in business, nonunion government contractors, made up primarily of small- and medium-size "mom and pop" outfits, must operate as if they are signatory to a collective bargaining agreement with the trade unions in order to bid for PLA projects. If they don't, they will risk being cut out of the running for the billions of dollars in these government projects.
Small contracting businesses will choose to not bid on these government projects because of the cost of paying into the union trust.
These military housing entities also are unwittingly forced to side with unions, which leads to the further stifling of competition in the marketplace. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that when there is fair and open competition, costs are lower as compared with when a few contractors are given such an obvious advantage. The result is that government and taxpayers will pay dearly for these exclusive labor agreements when open competition has been eliminated.
Since this work would already be subject to federal Davis-Bacon rules, a requirement that all workers must be union members makes no financial sense. Davis-Bacon is a federal wage system requiring all contractors to pay employees at defined amounts. It has traditionally been blind to union or nonunion status.
So, I ask you, would you force your own employees who don't care to be affiliated with organized labor to pay into a unionized system that they're against?
I doubt it.
In addition, if these privatization entities choose to require a PLA, they could find themselves in violation of a Bush administration requirement. President Bush sought to level the playing field by issuing Executive Order 13202 on Feb. 17, 2001, which seeks to:
1) Promote and ensure open competition on federal and federally funded or federally assisted construction projects.Bush's executive order banned mandatory union-only project labor agreements on federally funded or federally assisted construction. Associated Builders and Contractors supports the Bush administration's position.
2) Maintain neutrality toward government contractors and their labor relations.
3) Reduce construction costs to the federal government and to the taxpayers.
4) Expand job opportunities, especially for small and disadvantaged business.
5) Prevent discrimination against government contractors or their employees based upon labor affiliation or lack thereof, thereby promoting economical, nondiscriminatory and efficient administration and completion of construction projects on all federally funded and federally assisted construction projects.According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of union workers in Hawaii's construction industry has been declining for 20 years. In recent years that percentage has dropped to less than 30 percent of the local construction work force. As chairman of Associated Builders and Contractors, Hawaii, I ask this question: Why is it we are being asked to eliminate 70 percent of our local work force from this work by mandating PLAs and opening the door to importing out-of-state workers who will send their tax dollars out of Hawaii?
As citizens, contractors and residents of Hawaii, we must be diligent in opposing union-only PLAs. In addition, we must support our local economy, our local governments and our local workers by fighting to keep the playing field level in government contracting. Let us join together in preserving fair and open competition in the marketplace.
Robert Hugh Joslin lives in Wailuku, Maui, and is chairman of the board of the Associated Builders and Contractors, Hawaii.
BACK TO TOP |
There are ways
to control some of
that horrible spam
If only spam were as laughable as the famous "Monty Python" skit by the same name. If you're online at all, you're bound to get junk e-mail touting everything from investments in Nigeria to pitches for Viagra, from term life insurance to pornography.
Enough already!
While there are no precise numbers, it's been estimated that 40 percent to 50 percent of all the e-mail is spam. I believe the percentage is higher still. One morning, for example, I downloaded 84 e-mails, and every single one of them was spam.
Mass e-mailers target everyone with a computer, which means this rubbish ends up in all of our mailboxes, including those of our kids. Getting all this junk is bad enough; the cost of dealing with it is astronomical. This blight is costing our country billions of dollars a year in lost productivity as well as resources such as hardware and software.
Even though it's not likely we'll ever be rid of it, there are things you can do to control it, both legislatively and on a personal level. The only sure way to stop spam is to never respond to it. If companies don't get any response, they might get the message that they are wasting their time and money.
Further, major Internet service providers such as Road Runner, AOL and Earthlink have systems working to block spam before it gets to you. Their systems use a list of "known" spammers' e-mail addresses. Spammers change their e-mail addresses frequently, however, so this method has been only partially successful.
To improve spam-blocking, there are software tools that can at least reduce the number of unwanted e-mail. For example, Matador from MailFrontier (www.mailfrontier.com) and SpamNet from Cloudmark (www.cloudmark.com) have gotten excellent reviews. I've had reports that Matador blocks about 90 percent of junk mail. It costs $29.95 for the program. Cloudmark's SpamNet is free to download but costs $3.99 a month to use.
In addition to software filtering, there are preventive steps you can take to reduce spam. A commonsense approach is to never, ever purchase anything advertised via spam. Often, spammers have an option to remove yourself from their lists, but I wouldn't suggest you take them up on it. This can be a ruse because once you respond, they know that your e-mail is legitimate and they will only send you more spam.
Also, registering for "free" games or programs will likely get you on a spam list. This "free" software is given out by companies hoping to market other services to you. Agree to the terms in the deal, and it's also likely your e-mail address will be sold to still another company, which in turn will send you more spam. It's a vicious game, as you can see.
Be careful about divulging your e-mail address. Do so only with institutions or companies you feel you can trust. If you must reveal your e-mail address, us a temporary one from Hotmail, Yahoo or another free service.
Kiman Wong, general manager of Internet services at Oceanic Time Warner Cable, is an engineer by training and a full-time computer geek by profession. Questions or comments should be addressed to kiman.wong@oceanic.com.
Local companies are available
The founders of LavaNet, a widely known local ISP, have founded a separate company called Tiki Technologies (www.tikitechnologies.com) that specializes in protecting against spam and viruses. It's a subscription-based service rather than a software package and is available in platforms ranging from five users (for $12.50 a month) to 500 users (for $625 a month).
to help in the anti-spam warsPeter Kay, a popular commentator on technology and founder of Cybercom, has started an anti-spam company called Titan Key (www.titankey.com). This technology serves as a shield for Internet service providers. When it doesn't recognize a sender for a given e-mail address, it responds to the sender's e-mail server with a "no such user" error message. It's a service sold exclusively to ISPs and is not available for individual businesses. This system is being tested on the Road Runner Business Class e-mail services.
Hoala Greevy (www.pauspam.net), another widely known local entrepreneur, bases his anti-spam and virus-filtering software system (Pau Spam) on Linux, a free, sturdy open-source technology. Greevy said Pau Spam currently filters more than 250,000 messages a day and has subscribers in Asia, Australia, North America and Hawaii. It's available for individual users on a subscription basis for $1 a day. If you're interested, Hoala's company will provide a free introductory month's service.
The fourth local anti-spam artist is Earl Ford, a Honolulu network engineer and founder of SystemMetrics. He's come up with a nifty anti-spam software called Intercept, which is compatible with virtually all e-mail servers and clients. Ford says his technology has been thoroughly tested and is used by a number of companies on the mainland as well as locally. Clients range from corporations to small businesses. Price is as low as $5 a month for individuals, and it is available as a subscription service. For more information about Intercept, visit www.systemmetrics.com .
BACK TO TOP |
Bunnies, bears
and biscotti sweet
fodder for Easter baskets
NEW YORK >> For spring gift baskets, think bunnies and bears in sherbet colors, and biscotti with a taste of Hawaii.
These bunnies and bears from Sootheze do more than just look good. They smell good, too. Their floppy bodies are filled with flax seed and herbs, such as lavender, rosemary and thyme.
When microwaved for 90 seconds, these critters get just warm enough to soothe aches, ease cramps or ward off air-conditioning chills.
"They're so cute and extremely soft," said Lisa Hammond, owner of Femail Creations, a Las Vegas-based catalog and Internet retailer that sells products made by woman-owned businesses, like Sootheze. "They make a great Easter gift or Mother's Day gift.
"The fact you can put these in the microwave and heat them up is a huge selling point," she added. "You could give this as a baby shower gift to a pregnant mom or to your grandma, to snuggle with for her arthritis."
The colors are soothing, too. The bunny comes in pink, mint green, blue or yellow. The bear is available in lavender, blue or buff.
The Sootheze bunnies are shown in the spring catalog and online at FemailCreations.com, which has quite a following in Hawaii, Hammond said.
Her brand of customer service has paid off, driving Femail Creations' 2003 sales to just more than $7 million and landing her company on Catalog Success magazine's list of the top 25 growing catalog retailers. (For information, go online to www.femailcreations.com, or call toll-free 1-800-996-9223.)
The Toasty Rabbit and Toasty Bear are part of the Sootheze line of microwaveable therapy products invented by Chris Uding, a massage therapist, and her husband, James Uding. Based in Fremont, Calif., their company, Sootheze Inc., also makes a tropical reef collection of two fish and a turtle to warm hands or feet, and silk pillows with chillable gel packs to relieve migraines. (Online at www.sootheze.com or call 1-888-SOO-THEZ)
The microwaveable plush is "recommended as a gift for the new mother," said Chris Uding, explaining that the animal's warmth "helps with lactation, to get the milk flowing."
For the Udings, one of the secrets to success is to never compromise quality for price. Their products are made in their California warehouse with top ingredients, making their retail price ($38.95 for a bunny or a bear) higher than many gift items made overseas.
"We put only food-grade ingredients in our products," James Uding said. "We buy the flax in North America, for instance. We could use flax from China, but it's not washed. When I make something, I want it to be good enough for my mother or my wife to put her face in it."
The standard of "good enough for mom" is, in fact, what the Udings and Sootheze have in common with Michael Ching, president of Clara Confectioners, a Hawaii biscotti and cookie company named after his mother.
"We're a very small company, family owned, family run," Ching said, noting that the company in Kapolei doesn't have a Web site or even a sales brochure. "We try to put together a product that's good enough to give to our mother or our auntie."
The University of Hawaii Law School gave Clara Confectioners cookies to some visiting U.S. Supreme Court justices as a gift at a recent event, Ching said. The company's products also are popular for Mother's Day, housewarming and new office gifts, as well as for Easter and the Christmas holidays.
Clara Confectioners uses the finest ingredients available, including pineapple, mango, lilikoi, macadamia nuts and Kona coffee grown in Hawaii, plus green tea from Japan.
"We feel Hawaiian grown is among the world's best," he said. "We use a brown egg that's locally grown. These recipes originated with my mom. She thinks a brown egg comes from a happier chicken."
That strategy has won Clara Confectioners a following in Hawaii at the Neiman-Marcus store in the Ala Moana Shopping Center and in New York City at MarieBelle, a gourmet chocolate maker and retailer.
I discovered Clara Confectioners biscotti when the company's exquisite packaging caught my eye while I was sipping MarieBelle's hot chocolate in Lunettes et Chocolat, her SoHo shop.
The packaging, which showcases paintings of rare Hawaiian birds, won two Pele advertising awards in 2002, Ching said.
The package caught the eye of Maribel Lieberman, when she visited Neiman-Marcus in Honolulu last fall to promote her hand-made chocolates with the whimsical cocoa butter-painted tops, which are also sold there. But it was the taste that prompted her to carry Clara Confectioners products in her Broome Street and Soho shops in New York.
"Clara lets the natural flavor of the fruit act as a sweetener," Lieberman said. "Too many others have a tendency to overwhelm the fruit with sugar."
Clara's biscotti and cookies come in six flavors. (Price: About $28 for a decorative tall tin of 12 chocolate-dipped biscotti; other prices vary, depending upon flavor and package size. For more information, visit the Neiman-Marcus store in Honolulu or call Clara Confectioners at 682-7066.)
Jan Paschal is a New York-based shopping columnist. She can be reached via email at jansshopsavvy@aol.com
To participate in the Think Inc. discussion, e-mail your comments to business@starbulletin.com; fax them to 529-4750; or mail them to Think Inc., Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813. Anonymous submissions will be discarded.
