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HAWAII
Ex-Foremost workers agree on severance

Former employees of Foremost Dairies-Hawaii have agreed to a severance package offered by the company, their union said.

Members of the Teamsters Local 996 voted earlier this week to accept an offer by the now-defunct dairy processor, Teamsters representative Jeanne Ishikawa said. Neither side would release details of the settlement.

Foremost, which shut down on Monday after more than 50 years in the islands, putting 120 people out of work, has been soliciting bids to sell its processing equipment, truck fleet and the Foremost brand name, partly to help meet obligations to employees.

Competitor Meadow Gold Dairies has hired some Foremost workers, but the union was unsure how many, Ishikawa said.

Bahman Sadeghi, who led an investor group that bought Foremost in January, has blamed deteriorating conditions at the company's Honolulu processing plant for the decision to close, but the move has sparked speculation about his motives.

Foremost's previous owner and the state Department of Health have denied the plant was in disrepair. The Teamsters have voiced suspicions that Sadeghi's group wanted to reorganize the company as nonunion. But the severance agreement will not allow Foremost's owners to return as a nonunion operation, Ishikawa said.

NATION
Delta Air Lines expects bigger loss

ATLANTA » Delta Air Lines signaled yesterday its grim financial picture is worsening, putting more pressure on negotiations with pilots and creditors to avert a bankruptcy court filing.

The Atlanta-based airline said it expects next week to report a third-quarter loss of up to $675 million, far deeper than the $460 million industry analysts had forecast.

Delta, stuck in a three-year losing streak, also said cash reserves had dropped to $1.45 billion at the end of September. That's just under the amount at which analysts say Chapter 11 bankruptcy becomes an imminent possibility.

Crude futures hit another record

Crude oil futures rallied late yesterday to a new record of $54.93, a day after a decline in the U.S. inventory of heating oil roiled a market already on edge over tight supplies, high demand and unrest among key producers.

Oil for November delivery rose 17 cents to settle at $54.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after slipping to $54.14 in early trading. The November contract had settled at $54.76 on Thursday for the previous high.

ATA attendants OK 10% pay cut

Flight attendants for ATA Airlines voted yesterday to accept a 10 percent pay cut to help keep the airline in business and save their jobs.

More than 80 percent of Association of Flight Attendants members who work for ATA voted to accept the $24 million package of concessions, said Jacki Pritchett, president of the ATA union local. The union represents nearly all of the Indianapolis-based airline's 1,900 flight attendants.

ATA announced Thursday that it would lay off 156 employees -- including 150 flight attendants -- beginning Oct. 31. The airline blamed the layoffs on a seasonal business slowdown.

The true calorie count of a Coke

ATLANTA » Consumers are about to get a clearer look at just how many calories they're getting in a bottle of Coke, a bag of Fritos or a handful of Oreo cookies.

Yesterday, Coca-Cola and Pepsico followed the lead of Kraft Foods to retool information on labels of popular products to include details about the nutritional content of entire packages, not just per serving.

The changes, made voluntarily, are in response to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration effort to make Americans amid an obesity epidemic more aware of calories.