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Matson Contract Agreement, Go! Update, Online Job Postings |
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Written by Howard Dicus - hdicus@kgmb9.com
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July 01, 2008 08:36 AM |
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Blog: www.kgmb9.com/howard
Video Headline: Breaking News
This just in -- Matson Navigation reports a new five-year contract agreement has been reached with negotiators for three of its unions -- the Sailors Union of the Pacific -- the Seafarers International, representing cooks -- and the MFOW, the Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders and Wipers Association. Details of the agreement are facedown pending ratification by the rank-and-file, but clearly at a time of a cooling economy and rising prices it will be a good thing if the state's main shipping lines segues smoothly into new union contracts.
Tuesday morning -- when airlines roll back their weekend fare hikes because one of their rivals didn't go along -- only this time a round of 10 to 20 dollar roundtrip fare hikes is sticking. Southwest started it, and the legacy carriers eagerly followed.
A national study ranks Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Honolulu and San Francisco as the cities where it's hardest to amass wealth. The study factored in the median length of commute... apparently on the theory that you can't amass wealth when you're stuck in traffic.
Other Headlines:
The state hospital system, a 400-million-dollar a year system that employs more than 4-thousand people, has burned through 14 million in emergency state aid and is asking for more. There's a hiring freeze at Hawaii Health Systems' 13 hospitals, and there could be SOME job cuts, though the Maui division says not at its facilities. The problem? The same one other hospitals are dealing with: Medicaid compensation falls far short of actual costs. The more Medicaid patients you treat, the more money you lose.
When weekend fare hikes don't stick, rollbacks are announced on Tuesday morning. But THIS morning the news is that 10-20 dollar roundtrip fare hikes -- started by Southwest -- are holding.
How is Go doing after the collapse of Aloha? CEO Jon Ornstein told investors yesterday Go is getting more business from tour operators but is still at the mercy of its own fuel bills.
At a time when online job postings are down nationwide, Hawaii postings are running 12% higher than year-ago levels. Almost 10,000 jobs are posted online here and most of them are NEW postings, another good sign. |
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Last Updated ( July 01, 2008 09:25 AM )
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