Swank closing manufacturing in Attleboro
ATTLEBORO – Swank, Inc. announced the latest blow to the dwindling jewelry manufacturing business in the Southeastern Massachusetts-Rhode Island region when the company announced it would terminate its manufacturing operations here and eliminate 203 jobs. Its manufacturing would be transferred to its Costa Rican facility, the company said. A company spokesman said most of the people affected by the job cuts would be laid off, but that some of them would be offered jobs at the company’s warehouse and distribution center in Taunton. He was unsure of the exact number of jobs that would be offered in Taunton.
Worcester Telegram workers vote for union
WORCESTER – Circulation department workers at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette have voted for union representation in a National Labor Relations Board supervised election. The vote caps a five-month organizational campaign by the Providence Newspaper Guild to include the circulation department in its representation. The Guild already represents 130 employees in T&G’s news department. The Guild, which also represents more than 500 employees at the Providence Journal, is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, a 600,000-member organization. The Telegram & Gazette was recently purchased by The New York Times, which already owns The Boston Globe.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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Massachusetts firms ordered to pay back wages
BOSTON – Five Massachusetts firms have been ordered by the Labor Department to pay more than $172,000 in back wages to foreign computer professionals. A Labor Department specialist said 59 computer consultants will receive $172,323 in back wages because the companies that hired them violated Visa program laws for hiring skilled professionals temporarily. The law requires that the imported programmers or program analysts must be paid the same as any other worker doing the same job in the company, or be paid the prevailing wage for that job, whichever is higher. In the 59 cases cited, the foreign workers were paid below those standards. The companies are Envitec Corp. of Westboro; Intergalactic Research and Development of South Yarmouth; M&R Consultants of Burlington; McDonnell Associates Inc. of Weymouth, and Summit International, Inc. of Stoneham.
Stone & Webster gets Texas power plant pact
BOSTON – Stone & Webster, Inc. has won a contract from AES Corp. to build a $300 million power plant in Granbury, Texas. The natural gas-fired plant would generate up to 730 megawatts of electricity, enough to light 730,000 homes, and is expected to begin operating in 2002. AES, based in Arlington, Va., had previously hired S&W to build a 720-megawatt project in Londonderry, New Hampshire.
Fired nurses’ aides to be rehired
MEDFORD – Seventeen nurses’ aides will be rehired by the Courtyard Nursing Home here as the result of an agreement between the company and Service Employees International Union Local 285 in Roxbury. The union claimed the aides were fired because of their union involvement and because of their immigrant backgrounds. Management denied that accusation and asserted that the aides, all of whom are from Haiti, were fired because they left their posts in violation of company rules. The nursing home is owned by three companies, Genesis Health Ventures of Pennsylvania, New England Medical Center in Boston, and Hallmark Health System of Malden. Both management and union representatives expressed satisfaction with the settlement.
AMR to expand terminal at Logan
Fort Worth, Texas (Bloomberg) — AMR Corp.’s American Airlines said it plans to spend $270 million on a renovation of its terminal at Boston’s Logan International Airport. American Airlines said it plans to more than double the size of Terminal B to 600,000 square feet from 290,000 square feet and will improve its 17 gates to handle more types of planes. The project will take about four and a half years to complete. About 175 workers will take part in the expansion, the airline said, and more jobs will be added as it hires ticket agents and builds retail space for a food court, concession stands, bookstores and boutiques. American Airlines operates 160 daily nonstop departures from Logan Airport to 31 cities in the U.S. and Canada, as well as London and Paris.
Elan Corp. purchases rights to patent applications
LEXINGTON – AutoImmune, Inc. last week announced an agreement under which a subsidiary of Elan Corp., plc has purchased all of AutoImmune’s rights to certain patent applications involving the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. Under the terms of the agreement, AutoImmune will receive up to $7 million in cash in a combination of upfront fees and contingent payments over the next three years.
