Hawaiian Telcom extends profitability streak

Amid a contentious labor dispute, Hawaiian Telcom on Monday reported its third consecutive quarter of profitability since emerging from bankruptcy last fall.

The $7.4 million earned by the state’s largest telephone company in the third quarter was up from gains of $6.7 million in the second quarter and $5.5 million in the first quarter. It compared with a loss of $23.5 million during the third quarter of 2010 when the company was operating under bankruptcy protection.

Hawaiian Telcom union workers went on strike Thursday and Friday just as the state began hosting a summit of leaders from 21 Asia-Pacific nations. The union, which represents 700 of the company’s 1,300 employees, is unhappy with the latest contract offer from the company.

Hawaiian Telcom said revenue totaled $97 million during the July-through-September period, down from $101.5 million in the same quarter a year ago. The $4.5 million decrease was due primarily to a decline in equipment sales and the impact of land-line losses more than offsetting increases in high-speed Internet customers and gains from Internet protocol-based business services, Hawaiian Telcom said.

The company said it added 4,100 high-speed Internet subscribers in the third quarter, up 4.2 percent from a year earlier.

The company also provided an update on the Internet television service it began rolling out on Oahu in July. It has been working to install higher-capacity fiber-optic telephone lines needed to deliver the TV product. CEO Eric Yeaman would not say how many customers now have fiber-optic lines. The company said in July it hoped to have 50,000 homes capable of receiving TV by the end of the year, but it has pulled back from that number and now says it hopes to have 37,000 homes "enabled" to receive the television product by the end of the year.

Several analysts on a conference call after the earnings release questioned company executives regarding Hawaiian Telcom’s labor situation with IBEW Local 1357. Union employees have been working without a contract for three weeks.

Yeaman and Robert Reich, chief financial officer, were asked whether they thought another strike by unionized workers would affect the company’s customer service.

"Well, our plan includes the redeploying of our nonunion and management employees as well as bringing in hundreds of contractors to mobilize to basically keep our customer service requirements … so we’re prepared for that," Reich said.

Yeaman outlined the company’s "last, best and final" contract offer, which includes a freezing of the defined pension plan and increase in the company’s contribution to the 401(k) plan; an increase in the amount employees must pay for their health insurance premiums to 10 percent from zero; and a reduction in paid sick leave to eight weeks from 26 weeks a year. In addition the company proposed annual pay increases of 1 percent in each of the contract’s three years and annual ratification bonuses of $500 each year.

The last contract expired Oct. 24, and union members voted Oct. 31 to reject the company’s last offer. No new talks have been scheduled. Company officials reiterated Monday that they continue to stand by their last offer.

Yeaman said in the conference call that he felt the company’s contract offer viewed in its entirety was a "very fair proposal."

"We really are trying to look at the whole package because our objective was to try to be fair in this process and come out with a solution whereby we could change some of the structural issues that we have in our benefits programs."

However, Scot Long, IBEW 1357 business manager, took Yeaman and the company to task on the union website for their approach to the negotiations.

"Under Eric’s leadership he has divided a company where management employees and hourly employees once worked well together," Long wrote.

Long also said the union has planned a "friends and family campaign" with other labor unions, including the local representing hotel workers, asking them "not to deal with Hawaiian Telcom until our labor dispute is over."

Hawaiian Telcom filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2008 and emerged nearly two years later. Through its reorganization the company reduced its debt to $300 million from $1.2 billion. It later issued shares and became a publicly traded company.

Hawaiian Telcom’s stock closed up 2 cents at $14.98 Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.