L&I proposes lower workers’ comp rates
The Washington state Department of Labor & Industries has proposed lowering workers’ compensation rates next year by an average of 2 percent.
The department will hold public hearings on the proposal, and if approved, it would be L&I’s first general rate reduction in six years. The department said the reduction will save employers about $31 million in premiums, although the share paid by workers will increase slightly, to just over 25 percent of total premiums.
Companies that self-insure – a group that represents about 30 percent of the state’s work force – contribute only to the supplemental pension fund, and that pension fund rate would be increased by 7 percent, the department said.
The general rate reduction is made possible by a strong state economy, a good return on investments, and L&I’s success in controlling its health care costs, department Director Gary Weeks said in a press release.
Washington’s workers’ compensation program covers 2.3 million workers.
SILVERTON, Idaho
Mine workers reject contract
Hourly workers at the Galena Mine have rejected a contract proposed by the mine’s new owners, U.S. Silver Corp.
Steve Powers, staff representative for the United Steelworkers International, said he anticipates that both parties will go back to the negotiating table, but declined to give further details.
Union members voted down the contract on Wednesday. About 120 workers at the underground silver mine are represented by the Steelworkers.
The contract was for 4 ½ years, but had a provision allowing either management or the union to reopen the contract in March 2008, said Mark Hartmann, U.S. Silver Corp.’s president.In April, the company purchased the Galena Mine and other Silver Valley holdings of Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. for $15 million. At that time, the labor contract with workers was extended for six months.
Spokane
Tech companies form partnership
Spokane tech firm Interactive Dynamic Technologies, Inc. (iDynaTECH) announced it has formed a business development partnership with another area tech company, SafeDesk Solutions.
The two companies have moved into adjoining offices at the Sirti Technology Center, 120 E. Pine, on the Riverpoint higher education campus downtown.
SafeDesk Solutions develops Linux-based systems. IDynaTECH, which launched last year, develops Web-based applications and database tools.
The partnership will help iDynaTECH expand its marketing and programming projects, said Dan Ferguson, president of the firm.
OMAHA, Neb.
Buffet marries companion
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett married his longtime companion, Astrid Menks, in a private ceremony Wednesday, the Omaha World-Herald reported in a copyrighted story in its Thursday editions.
Buffett’s daughter, Susan, hosted the wedding at her Omaha home. She said her father and Menks, 60, were married by a judge in a 15-minute ceremony on Buffett’s 76th birthday.
“It’s her only and his last (wedding),” Susan Buffett said, recalling her father’s take on the ceremony.
Buffett’s first wife, Susan, died July 29, 2004, at age 72. She moved to San Francisco in 1977, but the two remained married and were together often and talked frequently when apart.