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Halekulani appoints general manager

The Halekulani hotel has named industry veteran Janis Clapoff as general manager.

Clapoff, who will take charge of the Halekulani on Aug. 1, will be responsible for directing day-to-day operations of the 455-room luxury hotel. She succeeds Fred Honda, who is retiring from the position he has held since July 2000.

Clapoff has nearly three decades of experience in hospitality management and has worked in a variety of management positions at hotels in the United States and Canada. Clapoff most recently served as managing partner of the Simpson House Inn in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Carpenters' union joins dissenters

WASHINGTON » Union leaders who govern the AFL-CIO voted yesterday to support President John Sweeney's plans to boost organizing efforts and continue political activities for pro-labor candidates and policies, but leaders representing a coalition of five dissident unions voted against Sweeney's proposals.

That coalition of unions challenging Sweeney picked up strength yesterday when the main national carpenter's union joined the effort to challenge the AFL-CIO. The carpenters' union broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2001.

The AFL-CIO, which represents almost 60 unions with 13 million members, has substantial differences with the five dissident unions, which represent more than 5 million of that total.

The dissident unions -- the Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union, United Food and Commercial Workers, Unite Here and Laborers' International Union -- joined this month in an alliance called the Change to Win Coalition.

Union leaders for the AFL-CIO and the dissidents spelled out the different directions they think the labor movement should go, and they agreed to talk more in the future.

"Today's executive council meeting was another exercise in reinforcing the status quo," said a statement issued by the Change to Win Coalition. "We remain disappointed in the unwillingness of the AFL-CIO officers to entertain meaningful change."

SEC begins investigating IBM

International Business Machines Corp.'s disclosure that it's being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission revived concerns that the company obscured a profit shortfall by announcing costs related to new option accounting.

IBM, the world's largest computer-services provider and No. 2 software maker, said last night the SEC is probing how the company reported first-quarter results and stock- option costs. The probe doesn't indicate "any violations of laws," IBM said in a statement. The inquiry rekindled concern that IBM used an April 5 announcement on expensing stock options to mask a weak business performance, said Lloyd Kurtz, a portfolio manager at Nelson Capital Management. On April 14, IBM reported profit that missed estimates and provided costs that indicated results fell short by a wider margin.