Another headache for Liberia A report in today's Lloyd's List says that the U.K. has issued an expulsion order for Gerald Cooper, Liberia's Permanent Representative at IMO
Offer for Skaugen extended Italy's Navigazione Montanari (NM) is extending its all-cash offer to I.M. Skaugen ASA shareholders until July 30, 1999.
More on Govan sale Kvaerner yesterday confrmed it has signed a Heads of Agreement with Marconi Electronic Systems Limited for the sale of its Govan Shipyard in Scotland
Peace deal on west coast PEACE has been declared on the US west coast after nearly two months of tortuous negotiations between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union.
Europe and China mull pact Brussels has started negotiations with Beijing on a bilateral maritime transport agreement.
Beijing renews invasion threat MILITARY speedboats flying the Taiwan flag patrol the waters around Taiwan's front-line defence outpost Jinmen Island -'as tensions continued to rise between the two historic enemies.
London rethink on expulsion of Liberian envoy BRITAIN is to reconsider its decision to expel Gerald Cooper, Liberia's permanent representative at the International Maritime Organisation, according to well-placed sources.
US acts on copyright for hull designs INTERIM regulations to implement registration for a new scheme under which original vessel hull designs will be protected by the US government have been promulgated by the US Copyright Office.
The Teamsters' four-day unfair labor practice strike against Overnite Transportation Co., Richmond, Va., the nation's fifth-largest stand-alone LTL carrier and biggest nonunion LTL carrier, ended with shippers voting to stay with Overnite. The company reported freight levels at 97.2 percent of what they were in the comparable week a year ago. The company postponed a regularly scheduled bargaining session with the union as retaliation in the five-year-old battle by the Teamsters to gain a contract with Overnite.
Amtrak may be predominantly an intercity people mover but increasingly its operations are affecting trucking—so much so that truck drivers who violate highway-rail grade-crossing warning signs could end up in jail and motor carriers may be charged higher fuel taxes to help expand intercity rail passenger service. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., is expected to advance a grade-crossing safety agenda. His wife and son escaped injury when an Amtrak train on which they were riding hit a truck and derailed.
Webvan Group Inc., Foster City, Calif., has formed an alliance with the San Francisco-based construction firm Bechtel Corp. to build automated warehousing and distribution facilities in 26 markets over the next two years. Webvan said it expects the Bechtel deal will total $1 billion in capital expenditures. Webvan is the brainchild of its CEO, Louis Borders, who founded the company last year. Its investors include Softbank Corp., Knight Ridder Co., CBS, Inc. and the venture capital firms of Benchmark Capital and Sequoia Capital. Borders also founded the Borders Books chain. The billion-dollar investment is warranted, because, said Chris Mannella, Webvan's vice president of marketing: "If you look at the total grocery, drug and home meal replacement markets, it's a $600 billion business."
Teamsters' rank-and-file members in the car-haul industry have overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year contract with 17 companies that union President James. P. "Jimmy" Hoffa says establishes a "new pattern" for the union. Analysts credit Hoffa for delivering for his members in his first national contract negotiations while at the same time recognizing realities in the car-haul business. Hoffa also has moved to place a Texas local into trusteeship, in a move designed to show government overseers he is serious about ridding the union of corruption.
Contract negotiations between the International Longshore & Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association again underscore how few options shippers and steamship lines have on the West Coast. The Port of Vancouver is hardly an option with container traffic up 44 percent there in May, straining capacity. Mexico is an option but the ports of Manzanillo and Ensenada, while modernizing, would be swamped with any large-scale diversion from this country.
The United Transportation Union is casting a skeptical eye on Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway's latest round of layoffs affecting 1,000 union positions. In a letter to BNSF President Matt Rose, in response to Rose's own letter to employees explaining the downsizing, UTU Vice Chairman John Fitzgerald said BNSF was covering up for the fact that UP was "eating their lunch." BNSF concedes that although UP has won back business it lost during its meltdown, BNSF actually has improved service and is, in effect, doing more with less.
The maintenance company responsible for loading the ill-fated ValuJet aircraft with live oxygen containers was charged with 110 counts of third-degree murder and an equal number of counts of manslaughter in a precedent-setting case for the aviation industry. Now-defunct SabreTech and three of its employees, charged separately in the case, were the only parties to take the fall for the fiery crash that took the lives of 110 people. The May 1996 crash in the Florida Everglades was caused by live oxygen generators improperly and illegally loaded into the cargo hold of the DC-9. The indictment is the first of its kind and should prompt renewed attention to hazmat training and government oversight.
Manugistics, the Rockville, Md.-based supply-chain company, appears to be back from the financially dead. After laying off about 30 percent of its work force and installing Gregory Owens as its new CEO and president, Manugistics "feels like a different organization," according to one company director. But its dicey financial days are not over yet. Licensing revenue fell to around $13.1 million in the first quarter from $17.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Some large customers, including Pillsbury, are sticking with Manugistics.
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