The Hawaii State Association of Electrical Workers supports the purchase of Hawaiian Electric Industries by Florida-based NextEra Energy, according to an announcement released Monday.

The association comprises all three Hawaii-based locals of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union: IBEW Local 1186, IBEW Local 1357 and IBEW Local 1260, which last week announced its support for the transaction. The union locals have more than 7,000 active members.

“The Hawaii State Association of Electrical Workers has a fiduciary responsibility to always look after the best interests of its members,” said Brian Ahakuelo, business manager and financial secretary of Local 1260, in a statement. “I believe this agreement does exactly that by not only providing job security during the anticipated transitional process, but it also puts us in position to make significant gains in future negotiations.”

Damien Kim, business manager of Local 1186, said the move toward green energy generation “will provide many opportunities for members of the HSAEW in the years to come, and that a NextEra-owned utility will help us maximize those opportunities as we move towards 100-percent renewable energy generation.”

Local 1357 business manager Kimi Koge said, “The energy model in our state should be able to adapt to technological advancements while also being sensitive to the needs of Hawaii’s working class. I believe, with this agreement, we’ll be able to hit these goals.”

Last week’s announcement by Local 1260 was made after NextEra Hawaii agreed to honor the union’s current collective bargaining contract and recognized the union as the exclusive agent for all bargaining unit employees.

City ranks 20th for female-run firms

The 20th-best U.S. market for a woman to start a business in is Honolulu.

The average revenue for a female-owned business in Honolulu is $146,024, and there are 2.62 such businesses for every 100 people in the market, according to personal finance website Nerdwallet.com.

Womens’ median annual income in Honolulu is $41,161, which the study found is 81 percent of men’s income.

The study calculated scores for 174 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or more, using various data points, many gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau for different studies.

Business climate comprises 45 percent of the total Nerdwallet score, while local economic health is 25 percent of the score, and financing opportunities makes up the final 30 percent. The top-rated city in the Nerdwallet study is Boulder, Colo., with female-owned businesses generating $91,050 in average revenue, much lower than the Honolulu number; however, there are 4.42 female-owned businesses per 100 people. While women’s median annual income in Boulder is greater than Honolulu at $48,223, the figure is only 77 percent of men’s income in the area.

In Honolulu there are 30.55 U.S. Small Business Administration-backed loans per 100,000 residents, but in Boulder that figure jumps to 41.17.

ON THE MOVE

Kaiser Permanente has announced the appointment of Patricia Bazin as senior director of community-based care in Hawaii. She previously directed the implementation of the $1.5 billion Quest Integration program at the Hawaii Department of Human Services Med-Quest Division, Hawaii’s Medicaid program. Bazin also served as chief operating officer of Ohana Pacific Management Co., where she oversaw operations as well as program development and performance improvement at four nursing facilities on Kauai and Oahu.