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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, July 1, 2001

Tugboat talks down to wire

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Negotiators for the tugboat operators' union and two interisland barge and tug companies continued talking into the night yesterday, passing the midnight deadline for a strike.

"The clock is stopped," said Bill Chung, vice president of personnel and industrial relations for Young Brothers Ltd. and Hawaiian Tug & Barge, two companies whose 350 employees include 59 Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific members.

The company put a contract offer on the table, and the union called in members to vote on it, Chung said. He thought the union was asking members to ratify the contract on the spot.

Inlandboatmen's union members voted Wednesday to authorize a strike if an agreement on a three-year contract was not reached by the deadline.