Archive for September 18th, 2008
September 18th, 2008
From Times Online
September 18, 2008 (Chris Helgren/Reuters)
Alitalia had been flying the flag for Italy over the last six decades
Richard Owen in Rome
The bankrupt Italian airline, Alitalia, collapsed today after a consortium of Italian industrialists withdrew its offer to buy the carrier.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, said: “We are facing the abyss.” Luigi Angeletti, head of the UIL union, one of three unions that had accepted the bid by the Italian Air Company (CAI), said that the collapse was “a catastrophe for Italian society and trades unions”.
The collapse comes after weeks of brinkmanship, with unions banking on being able to squeeze further concessions from the consortium and calculating that Mr Berlusconi, who had put his prestige on the line to find an “Italian solution”, would not allow it to fail.
The end of the talks spells doom for a carrier that has been a proud national symbol of Italy for more than six decades, flying the Italian tricolour, but which has suffered from chronic labour disputes and mismanagement, aggravated more recently by crippling fuel costs.
The takeover consortium had laid down a deadline of 3.50pm local time for the airline’s nine unions to back it. As the deadline neared, Maurizio Sacconi, Italy’s Labour Minister, admited that Alitalia’s future was “hanging by a thread”.
After the deadline passed the group of investors, led by Roberto Colaninno, chairman of the scooter manufacturer Piaggio, withdrew its bid. With no other offers on the table, Alitalia’s administrator, Augusto Fantozzi, said that this would mean the airline now faced liquidation proceedings. There were shouts of protest and dismay from Alitalia workers demonstrating outside the CAI meeting as the news emerged.
Mr Berlusconi has said that the airline’s 20,000 workers cannot expect generous redundancy packages in the case of liquidation. Mr Fantozzi said that although previous deadlines had come and gone, this time Alitalia simply had “no cash left to continue”.
Alitalia, founded in 1946, needs €1.4 million (£1.1 million) a day for fuel and loses a further €2 million a day, adding to debts of €1.17 billion recorded at the end of July. The CAI consortium had offered to inject €1.5 billion into Alitalia and merge it with Air One, Italy’s second largest carrier.
Three of the four larger unions said that they could accept the deal, but smaller ones, including those representing pilots and flight attendants, objected to the proposed loss of more than 3,000 jobs and new contracts laying down longer hours for the same pay.
Fabio Berti, leader of ANPAC, the pilots’ union, said that his members were prepared to make “extraordinary sacrifices” to persuade CAI to change its mind and return to negotiations.
Despite the crisis, Alitalia’s planes continued to take off and land normally. Fifty flights were cancelled today, but the airline said that this was because of a one-day strike by a small trades union.
Mr Berlusconi, who had earlier said that he was “still optimistic”, blamed the leftwing union CGIL, which held out against the deal, for causing the crisis. CGIL had tabled a counter proposal together with the pilots union and other smaller unions involving further negotiations, but CAI members said that it was too late.
The CAI offer called for 3,250 layoffs and generous benefits of up to 80 per cent of pay for eight years for those who lost their jobs. But Mr Berlusconi gave warning this week that this offer would not apply in the case of liquidation.
The previous centre-left government of Romano Prodi started the process to sell the Government’s 49.9 percent stake in the airline nearly two years ago. After an auction failed, the airline entered into talks with Air France-KLM, which made an offer.
However Air France-KLM withdrew this Spring because of “unacceptable” union conditions, and because of alleged lack of support from Mr Berlusconi, who was fighting en election campaign at the time and vowed for patriotic reasons to “find an Italian solution”.
The CAI plan also involved a foreign airline taking a minority stake in the new Alitalia. Mr Sacconi had claimed that British Airways, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa were all interested. Maintenance and freight operations were to have been sold off.
The Government made a €300 million emergency loan to Alitalia in April, but under EU rules could not pump in any further state aid. It has spent €5 billion of public money over the past 15 years to keep Alitalia afloat.
Alitalia is the first major European flagship airline to collapse since Swissair Group and Belgium’s Sabena in 2001. Greece said yesterday that it would also shut down its ailing state carrier, Olympic Airlines, and relaunch it.
In a statement CAI said that the “dramatic situation” of Alitalia and that of the international markets did not allow any further scope for negotiations, in which “numerous concessions” had already been made. The consortium was “deeply disappointed” that a plan that could have given new life to the airline despite the current “difficult moment for the airline sector and the economy as a whole” had been rejected.
CAI said that one of the most important conditions attached to its offer had been the attainment of a broad agreement with the unions on new contracts. “Such an agreement was not reached,” the consortium said, adding that only three unions — CISL, UIL and UGL — had accepted the terms.
Mr Sacconi said the failure of the talks was the “logical consequence” of the “absurd obstructionist position” taken by CGIL and its allies, including the pilots’ union. However Guglielmo Epifani, head of CGIL, said that the union would “not be a scapegoat. We accept our share of responsibility, but so must the Government”.
September 18th, 2008
This morning, I heard William Strauss from the Federal Reserve in Chicago give Boone County a review of the economy. The meeting was open to the public and there must have been 50-60 people in attendance. Although he covered various economic data@font-face { font-family: Batang; } @font-face { font-family: Batang; } @font-face { font-family: Calibri; } @font-face { font-family: @Batang; } @page Section1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in; margin: 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; } P.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 11pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: “Calibri”,”sans-serif” } LI.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 11pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: “Calibri”,”sans-serif” } DIV.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 11pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: “Calibri”,”sans-serif” } A:link { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99 } SPAN.MsoHyperlink { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99 } A:visited { COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99 } SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99 } SPAN.EmailStyle17 { COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: “Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-style-type: personal-compose } .MsoChpDefault { mso-style-type: export-only } DIV.Section1 { page: Section1 } and topics, he made a number of points about manufacturing:
1. Manufacturing output is slightly below similar period of 2007.
2. Manufacturing Output is at record levels. Output may be down on those producers of consumer goods, but is up for those making equipment for industry. Example cited was the large $10 million CAT truck. CAT is also expanding their facilities for these vehicles and their backlog goes into year 2012!
3. Although Lite vehicle and lite truck sales are falling 11% and 19%, car sales are falling only 3%
4. Between Detroit Big 3 auto and the New Domestics (Honda, Toyota, etc) production in the U.S> from 1980 to now is about the same.
5. Buy America: Ford Mustang has a 70% U.S. content, Toyota Sienna has a 85% U.S. content.
6. While the Big 3 production and sales are declining over the past 28 years, U.S. made sales of Honda, Toyota, Nissan and the others is growing.
7. Productivity is key and recently it has been averaging twice the historical rate.
In all, what I heard didn’t make me want to jump out of the nearest high rise building.
September 18th, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 11, 2008 – The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) said that environmental legislation introduced today by Senators Inhofe (R-OK) and Voinovich (R-OH) would reestablish a climate of business certainty by modernizing the overly complex Clean Air Act.“The Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) Reinstatement Act of 2008 would turn into law yet another EPA clean air rule that has been vulnerable to legal attacks and make it more difficult for the courts to challenge,” said NAM Vice President, Energy and Resources Policy Keith McCoy.
“The NAM supports continued efforts by Members of Congress to streamline and clarify the complex and ambiguous requirements of the Clean Air Act,” McCoy continued.
The CAIR rule was promulgated in 2005 to reduce air emissions from electric utilities in 28 eastern states and the District of Columbia. At full implementation, by 2015 the rule would reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide (S0x) by 73 percent and nitrogen oxide (Nox) emissions by 61 percent from 2003 levels in affected states.
“This legislation underscores the continued need to modernize the Clean Air Act. Regulatory uncertainty continues to undermine U.S competitiveness and contributes to a structural cost disadvantage for American industry with respect to our major trading partners,” McCoy said.
“So long as key environmental programs continue to be based on federal regulation rather than legislation, these programs will remain vulnerable to litigation and create confusion and uncertainty among end-users,” he concluded.
08-210 CONTACTS:
LAURA NARVAIZ (202) 637-3104
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BRYAN BRENDLE (202) 222-5692
September 18th, 2008
This morning, I heard William Strauss from the Federal Reserve in Chicago give Boone County a review of the economy. The meeting was open to the public and there must have been 50-60 people in attendance. Although he covered various economic data and topics, he made a number of points about manufacturing:
1. Manufacturing output is slightly below similar period of 2007.
2. Manufacturing Output is at record levels. Output may be down on those producers of consumer goods, but is up for those making equipment for industry. Example cited was the large $10 million CAT truck. CAT is also expanding their facilities for these vehicles and their backlog goes into year 2012!
3. Although Lite vehicle and lite truck sales are falling 11% and 19%, car sales are falling only 3%
4. Between Detroit Big 3 auto and the New Domestics (Honda, Toyota, etc) production in the U.S> from 1980 to now is about the same.
5. Buy America: Ford Mustang has a 70% U.S. content, Toyota Sienna has a 85% U.S. content.
6. While the Big 3 production and sales are declining over the past 28 years, U.S. made sales of Honda, Toyota, Nissan and the others is growing.
7. Productivity is key and recently it has been averaging twice the historical rate.
In all, what I heard didn’t make me want to jump out of the nearest high rise building.
September 18th, 2008
Leading Edge Hydraulics has reached a business deal to establish a new company that will be based in Sweden.
The new company will be called Leading Edge Hydraulics AB and will be based in Lidköping, Sweden. It will service Leading Edge’s customer base in Europe, providing equipment for companies like John Deere, Hitachi, Caterpillar and Haldex.
The newly formed company is expected to create new jobs for both companies. “This is very exciting for us because it is our first step into making a foreign direct investment. We’ve been exporting for several years and our customers have been asking us to fully service their needs globally,” said Leading Edge Hydraulics Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Russ Dennis.
The new company will start shipping product early next year. Dennis said, “We’re looking very much forward to be able to create this new joint venture in Sweden, to be able to serve European markets and we’ll see where it goes from beyond there as well.”
But this deal has been a couple years in the making, since Rockford leaders took part in Stockholm’s Entrepreneur’s Day (E-Day) in 2006. That’s when Mayor Larry Morrissey networked with Lidköping’s Mayor. Morrissey said, “That’s a great start but ultimately, I think this is a message to other Rockford businesses that those opportunities are here.”
The Rockford delegation in Sweden include Winnebago County Board Chair Scott Christiansen and representatives from the Rockford Area Economic Development Council.
Now Mayor Morrissey’s on board a plane to china to meet with businesses and government officials in several cities in China. Janyce Fadden, Rockford Area Economic Development Council President, said the Mayor will meet with the “Civil Aviation Authority of China and that meeting is to talk about opening up our airport as a potential landing place for Chinese aircraft.”
This is the first big news to come from the Rockford delegation’s trip to Sweden and China.
See the WREX story here…
http://www.wrex.com/Global/story.asp?S=9026429&nav=menu1352_2
September 18th, 2008
I would hope that our leaders would give the go-ahead to sensible allow drilling off our shores; don’t they realize manufacturers provide jobs to this industry? And there are many companies in the U.S. that make equipment or components for this industry. I know, my company does….so let’s get it done!
Pelosi masquerades the bill as a “pro-offshore drilling” vote, but only allows drilling 50 miles beyond our coasts (a large percentage of offshore oil is found closer to the shores), requires states to sign-off on drilling but forbids the states from sharing in the royalties, giving them no incentive to allow drilling. In addition, the Democrat bill does not offer incentives for renewable energy without tax hikes, does not expand needed refinery capacity, forbids oil shale exploration, prevents drilling in the Arctic coastal plain, does not allow for more nuclear energy, does not promote clean coal and coal-to-liquid technology, and increases taxes on the oil and gas industry that will be passed along to American motorists.
Furthermore, Speaker Pelosi again is forbidding Congress from considering an alternative bill. Manzullo joined many of his colleagues earlier this year in unveiling the American Energy Act (HR 6566), which will increase the supply of American-made energy, improve conservation and efficiency, and promote new and expanding energy technologies to help lower the price at the pump and reduce America’s increasingly costly and dangerous dependence on foreign sources of energy.
Here’s the latest….
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 17, 2008; 6:19 AM
WASHINGTON — Offshore oil drilling, which has dominated energy debates in the presidential campaign, is now coming to the Senate.
The House late Tuesday approved on a 236-189 vote legislation that would open waters 50 miles off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts to oil and natural gas development _ if the adjacent states agree to go along.
The legislation now goes to the Senate, where Democratic leaders are expected to mold it to their liking in the next few days.
So far, the Senate has indicated it has no intention of going as far as the House in expanding offshore oil and gas drilling beyond the western Gulf of Mexico, where energy companies have been pumping oil and gas for decades.
At least two proposals being crafted in the Senate would allow drilling in some areas along the southern Atlantic from Virginia to Georgia. But the Pacific and remainder of the Atlantic seaboard would not be affected.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also has said he would make way for a vote on a broader Republican drilling proposal that would allow states to opt for offshore exploration from New England to the Pacific Northwest and share in the royalties that are collected.
Congress has renewed bans on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida annually for the past 26 years.
But expanded offshore drilling has become a mantra of GOP energy policy that has been felt in both presidential and congressional campaigns, even though lifting the drilling ban would have little if any impact on gasoline prices or produce any more oil for years.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain vowed at the recently concluded GOP convention to push for new offshore oil and natural gas drilling as delegates chanted “drill, baby, drill.” His Democratic rival, Barack Obama, also has said he supports more drilling as part of a broader energy package.
But in the Senate the issue of drilling remains divisive.
No matter what the proposal, it is expected to face a filibuster and no one has yet to predict with certainty that any drilling bill will garner the 60 votes needed to overcome such a roadblock.
The drilling measure passed late Tuesday in a largely party-line vote by the House is unlikely to survive the Senate.
President Bush, who has called for ending the offshore drilling bans, signaled he would veto the legislation if it reached his desk, arguing that it would stifle offshore oil development instead of increasing it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the bill “a new direction in energy policy … that will end our dependence on foreign oil” by shifting federal subsidies from promoting the oil industry to spurring development of alternative energy sources and energy efficiency.
The House measure would allow drilling in waters 50 miles from shore almost everywhere from New England to Washington state as long as a state agrees to go along with energy development off its coast. Beyond 100 miles, no state approval would be required. The drilling ban would remain in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
But Republicans called the drilling measure a ruse to provide political cover to Democrats feeling pressure to support more drilling at a time of high gasoline prices.
“How much new drilling do we get out of this bill? It’s zero. Just zero,” declared House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio. “It’s a hoax on the American people. This is intended for one reason … so the Democrats can say we voted on energy.”
The bill would not share royalties from energy production with the adjacent states, which Republicans said would keep states from accepting any new drilling off their beaches. Republicans also cited Interior Department estimates that 88 percent of the 18 billion barrels of oil believed to be in waters now under drilling bans would remain off-limits because they are within the 50-mile protective coastal buffer.
The House-passed bill calls for rolling back nearly $18 billion in tax breaks over 10 years for the five largest oil companies and using the revenue for tax incentives to help commercialize alternative energy such as solar, wind and biomass, and programs that foster energy efficiency.
The bill also would require the president to make available oil from the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Pelosi said such a move is needed to drive down gasoline prices, although oil prices have dropped dramatically in recent weeks and many energy experts believe gasoline prices will fall as well after refineries recover from Hurricane Ike.
Democrats added a provision at the last minute that makes it a federal crime for oil companies with federal leases to provide gifts to government employees, a response to a recent sex and drug scandal involving the federal office that oversees the offshore oil royalty program and energy company employees.
The House bill also would:
_Provide tax credits for wind and solar energy industries, the development of cellulose ethanol and other biofuels.
_Require utilities nationwide to generate 15 percent of their electricity from solar, wind or other alternative energy sources.
_Give tax breaks for new energy efficiency programs, including the use of improved building codes, and for companies that promote their employees’ use of bicycles for commuting.
