May 1, 2003 - Northwest Airlines' powerful pilots union says the group is willing to negotiate cost reductions ... but says there's no rush. With the airline industry awash in red ink, Northwest is asking its four biggest unions for pay and other cost cuts averaging 870 million dollars a year. The pilots' share would be more than half. As Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports, the pilots response is an important step, even if it's not a surprise.
April 23, 2003 -
April 3, 2003 - State regulators blasted Xcel energy officials over an auditor's preliminary conclusion that the company's outage reporting system is 'corrupt.' The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission also expressed concern that employees of the Minneapolis based utility are reluctant to speak to the auditors, for fear of reprisal. The PUC voted to continue the investigation and required Xcel to encourage employees to come forward. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.
March 31, 2003 -
March 27, 2003 - Northwest Airlines is taking heat from laid off workers, union leaders and even Governor Tim Pawlenty over executive pay increases. Last week, Northwest announced it was cutting nearly five thousand jobs due to the war in Iraq. Less than a week later, the company disclosed its two top executives saw pay increases last year totalling nearly 2 million dollars ... a year the company lost almost 800 million dollars. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.
March 21, 2003 - Northwest Airlines says it's cutting nearly 5000 jobs due to the war in Iraq. The Eagan based carrier says it is removing 20 planes from service and reducing capacity by about 12 percent. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.
February 26, 2003 - Northwest airlines outlined cost reduction proposals to some of its unions this week. They include pilot pay cuts in the neighborhood of 20 percent. And some union leaders are complaining about reports that managers received bonuses when the company is asking for permanent labor cost reductions. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.
February 20, 2003 - Minneapolis based U-S Bancorp plans to spin off its Piper Jaffray brokerage as a separate company by this fall. US Bank paid 730 (m) million dollars to acquire the locally based brokerage five years ago. Piper has been hit by a series of fines by regulators over the past year. But analysts point to other factors for the spin-off. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.
February 13, 2003 - Eagan-based Northwest airlines is launching a campaign to convince union leaders of the need to reduce labor costs. Company officials have told Wall Street they need to cut overall expenses by as much as a billion and a half dollars. Northwest has already cut almost 12 thousand jobs and more than a billion dollars in expenses in about 2 years. But labor leaders at the nation's fourth largest airline say the last round of concessions has bred strong resistance to another round of give-backs. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.
January 30, 2003 - Job vacancies in Minnesota continued to decline in the last 3 months of last year. The number of job openings fell by almost one third from the end of 2001. Two years ago, before the recession, the survey found there were more jobs than people looking for work in Minnesota. Now there are twice as many job hunters as jobs. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Catlin reports.