MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIF. » Kaiser Permanente and unions representing 105,000 health care workers across the United States, including 800 in Hawaii, have reached a tentative labor agreement.
A joint statement released Monday by Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions praised the three-year contract, which would cover registered nurses, pharmacists and maintenance and service workers. They say the pact includes 2 percent to 4 percent wage increases each year, depending on the region.
The tentative agreement, reached Saturday, also includes better dental coverage, life insurance and tuition reimbursement, among other benefits.
The plan has to be ratified by 28 union locals this summer and by Kaiser Permanente leadership. It would cover 81,000 workers in California; 8,500 in Oregon and Washington; 5,000 in Colorado; 5,500 in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia; 1,800 in Georgia; as well as 800 in Hawaii.
Allegiant wins appeal in pilots dispute
LAS VEGAS » A federal appeals court says Allegiant Air, which flies to Honolulu from Las Vegas and Los Angeles, had the right to make changes in work rules for its pilots.
It’s the latest development in a dispute that nearly led to a strike earlier this year at the low-fare airline.
Allegiant pilots are angry over changes that the company made to crew-scheduling rules and to benefits that had been negotiated by some of the pilots before they joined a union.
On Monday, three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the pilots who negotiated the rules were not an official collective bargaining agent. Because of that, the judges say, the company was within its rights to change the rules.
The pilots are now represented by the Teamsters, which sued the airline. Shortly after the Teamsters’ victory, Allegiant changed policies for pilots who lost medical clearance because of illness or who wanted to take parental leave, and it created a new scheduling system.
Monday’s ruling overturned a July decision by a district court judge, who ordered the airline to restore the old rules.
The pilots threatened this year to walk off the job in protest over the dispute, but another federal judge in Las Vegas blocked the strike. Federal law makes it difficult for airline workers to strike.
Apple unveils music streaming service
SAN FRANCISCO » Apple’s iTunes has grown stale. It is difficult to use and feels dated when compared with online music services like Spotify and Pandora. Pick your critique, and Apple has heard it.
But an overhaul of Apple’s music products, which includes an integration of the Beats music service that the Cupertino, Calif., company acquired last year for $3 billion, shows that Apple, if anything, knows it has to grab attention while playing catch-up.
In a thoroughly choreographed presentation at Apple’s annual conference for software developers, celebrities including movie director J.J. Abrams and rapper Drake helped Apple on Monday perform the nifty trick of matching competitors like Google and Spotify while still appearing to be on the cutting edge of the tech scene.
"We weren’t the first phone, we weren’t the first music player. That’s not where revolutions are made," Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of software and Internet services, said in an interview after the event. "Revolutions are about bringing it all together and having the best product that actually works."
The new music service was one part of a wide-ranging slate of announcements.
Apple detailed new versions of its software systems for iPhones, iPads and Macs, offering features like public transit directions to its mapping software — a feature Google and other mapping providers have supported for many years.
Apple introduced upgrades for its mobile and computer systems, iOS and OS X, with a strong focus on improving things under the hood, like stability, performance and battery life.
The new version of iOS, called iOS 9, expands on features like Siri, Apple’s voice-controlled assistant. The updated assistant can respond to commands like "Show me photos from last August" to load the specific photo roll taken that month.
Slow quarter to impede economic growth
U.S. economic growth in the second quarter will be far weaker than previously expected, and it will prevent the pace of growth from exceeding last year’s 2.4 percent, according to a forecast by a group of U.S. business economists.
Growth is expected to accelerate significantly in the third quarter, but "sluggish" conditions in the first three months of the year will persist into the second quarter and drag down average growth for the year, a survey by the National Association for Business Economists said Monday.
ON THE MOVE
Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate, has announced that Cesar Topacio is the new general manager for its Windward Mall team. He will be responsible for the overall management and operations of Windward Mall and its tenants, including Sears, Macy’s, Sports Authority and Regal Cinemas. Topacio has 12 years of retail property management experience, including as operations director for Folsom Premium Outlets in Northern California and general manager of Waikele Premium Outlets.
Bank of Hawaii has announced the following new vice presidents:
» Denise Inos has been promoted to vice president from assistant vice president at the Ala Moana Banking Center. She joined the bank in 2004 as a relief teller and also worked as a teller, teller supervisor, service associate and relief service manager.
» Ivan Lee, corporate policies and procedures manager, has been promoted to vice president from assistant vice president. Lee was a technical writer when he joined the bank in 1998 and also worked as an operations administrator as well as a corporate policies and procedures manager.
» Ilona Souza has been promoted to vice president from assistant vice president at the Lihue Branch. Souza joined the bank in 1969 and held positions such as branch control clerk, executive secretary, technical productivity specialist and consumer sales manager.
