Airport job attracts 60 applicants
About 60 people have submitted applications for the job of Spokane airport’s executive director. Airport officials launched a national search earlier this year following the retirement of John Morrison.
A consultant will reduce the applications to a smaller number, followed by a review by the board’s personnel committee, said airport spokesman Todd Woodard.
By October, board members should have chosen a short list of applicants and interviewed the top two or three candidates, said Woodard. The board will make a job offer before its November meeting, he said.
The job will pay between $110,000 and $125,000 per year depending on qualifications. Successful candidates must have a minimum of five years of upper-level management experience,.
Boise Wood Products combines headquarters
Boise Wood Products is merging its regional headquarters in northeast Washington and northeast Oregon into one “inland region” covering both areas.
The company will continue to provide onsite staff for day-to-day management of its northeast Washington sawmills and plywood plant, current region manager Tom Insko will relocate to La Grande, Ore., to assume responsibility for the inland region. The change is effective Oct. 1.
Boise Wood Products, based in Boise, has about 1,050 employees in the
inland region. The company operates plywood plants in Kettle Falls, Wash., and Elgin, Ore.; sawmills in Kettle Falls and La Grande; a particleboard plant in Island City, Ore.; and a stuff mill in Elgin.
Australian silver production purchased
Coeur d’Alene
Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. will purchase about 10 years worth of silver production at the Broken Hill Mine in New South Wales, Australia, officials announced last week.
The $36 million sale includes up to 24.5 million ounces of silver reserves at the historic mine, which began operations in 1885. The mine’s owner, Perilya Ltd., will oversee production for Coeur d’Alene Mines.
The Broken Hill Mine is expected to produce about 2.3 million ounces of silver annually, boosting Coeur d’Alene Mines’s silver production by about 17 percent, said Dennis Wheeler, company chairman. The cost of mining each ounce of silver is in the $2.75 range, well below current market prices of $6.99 per ounce, according to company officials.
The purchase is part of Coeur d’Alene Mines’ efforts to acquire low-cost silver assets, Wheeler said. The company has a similar arrangement with the Endeavor Mine, also located in Australia.
Union, Ford Canada reach agreement
The Canadian Auto Workers union on Monday reached a tentative contract settlement with Ford Canada that will result in some layoffs and “modest” wage and pension increases over the next three years, union president Buzz Hargrove said.
The deal with Ford sets a pattern that its Big Three competitors, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, will be expected to accept in subsequent talks that begin Monday.
The deal calls for a wage increase of 45 Canadian cents per hour for the CAW members in the first year, 30 Canadian cents an hour in the second and 30 Canadian cents in the final year of the three-year deal. It’s the smallest increase since 1985, said Hargrove..
Hargrove said he expected an estimated 1,100 layoffs among Ford’s 11,600 Ontario workers by the end of 2008, but emphasized many of those would be offered early retirement incentives or be put on preferential standby for any new jobs that open up.