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Business news and notes Tuesday, August 3, 2004
Sugar Cooperative locks workers out
RENVILLE, Minn. -- The Southern Minnesota Sugar Cooperative here locked out its workers July 29, apparently in retaliation for the union's rejection of management's latest contract offer, workers said.
The co-op had notified employees that it was going to lock them out of the plant after members of Local 369G of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco, and Grain Millers International Union rejected the company's contract offer.
The company followed through, said union local president Randy Billmeier. When some of the plant's 220 workers arrived they found a white line painted across the driveway at the cooperative, and guards would not let them in.
Billmeier said the main contract concern was changes in health care coverage. The contract offered a "small" wage increase to workers, but the workers would have seen a net decline due to increased health care charges, Billmeier said.
Iowa's economic recovery lagging
DES MOINES -- While Iowa's tax collections have improved, a new survey shows the state's economic recovery is lagging well behind the rest of the nation.
The survey by Federal Funds Information for the States ranked Iowa's economic momentum 35th in the nation, with growth well below the national average.
The state is victim of a regional malaise, said the Washington-based group, a subscription service of the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures.
"Midwestern states are more likely to do poorly," the group said in its State Policy Reports newsletter. "South Dakota, Wisconsin and North Dakota are the only states from the region to exceed the national average, and the latter two barely exceed it."
Leader of wheat groups charged with theft
BISMARCK, N.D. -- The former director of two wheat farmer groups has been charged with stealing almost $113,000 from them to speculate on wheat prices in the commodity markets.
Lance Hagen, who has compared his attempts to profit from the often volatile price swings to a drug addiction, is accused of two counts of misapplication of entrusted property, said Richard Riha, the Burleigh County state's attorney. Both charges are felonies, each carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Hagen left his jobs as director of the North Dakota Grain Growers Association and the U.S. Durum Growers Association in April. Before he was dismissed, he admitted to taking the money from the groups' accounts.
Both Hagen and a lawyer for the two wheat groups have said he repaid the money, stolen over 18 months, beginning in December 2002.
Governor wants beef certification program
PIERRE, S.D. -- South Dakota's governor says the state's farmers and ranchers can make more money if they join a program he wants to initiate that would market their beef around the world as certified.
At a conference last week, Gov. Mike Rounds told about 300 producers and others in the cattle industry that consumers would pay higher prices if they knew the meat met certain quality, consistency and safety standards.
Shoppers are demanding such information because of worries about mad-cow disease and other health threats, said state Agriculture Secretary Larry Gabriel.
"We have a vision, a dream of increasing profits for South Dakota beef producers and processors, and we believe that dream is in reach," Rounds said of his proposed South Dakota Certified Beef program. "It won't happen overnight, but it's definitely attainable."
Rounds and other state officials have set out rules for the voluntary program, but some details will be worked out in further consultations with the meat industry.
Wheat cooperative joins with CHS
MOSCOW, Idaho -- The local wheat cooperative here has decided to end nearly 75 years of independent operation and become part of Primeland Cooperatives, the Lewiston-based division of CHS of Minnesota.
The change at the farmer-owned Latah County Grain Growers was blamed on the federal government's accelerated export of stored wheat to poor nations and the popularity of the Conservation Reserve Program, which combined siphoned off too much money.
"You hate to lose that identity, but those things happen, unfortunately," Grain Growers Manager Dave Strong said.
The government's decision to move millions of bushels of grain to mainly Third World nations over the past 18 months has cost the cooperative $200,000 in lost storage fees from a yearly revenue stream of $1 million, he said.
Land O'Lakes to restate earnings
ARDEN HILLS, Minn. -- Dairy cooperative Land O'Lakes said it will restate $26 million in earnings for the past seven years because of overstatements at its Carlisle, Pa., dairy processing operation.
Land O'Lakes said last week that it would restate the earnings in mid- to late August.
Although it's a co-op, Land O'Lakes must file with the Securities and Exchange Commission because it issues debt securities.
The company announced on June 25 that the accounting adjustments will be related to recording estimates of milk receivables and milk payables at the Carlisle plant, going back to 1997 when the Atlantic Dairy Cooperative at Carlisle merged into Land O'Lakes.
Meanwhile, the co-op said it had sales of $2 billion in its second quarter, and net earnings of $16.7 million. The sales are up from $1.4 billion in the quarter a year ago, but earnings are down from $44.6 million in the earlier quarter as extraordinary items affected sales and earnings in both years.
Alliant Energy reports big loss
MADISON, Wis. -- Alliant Energy Corp. said last week it had a $13.1 million loss during the second quarter, compared with a net income of $32.2 million during the same period last year.
The Madison-based power and gas utility said the average loss was 12 cents per share, compared with earnings of 35 cents per share a year ago. But it noted that, as previously announced, the second quarter results included a non-cash impairment charge within its non-regulated businesses related to a pre-tax write-off of $43 million. Alliant said excluding that charge, its quarterly earnings from continuing operations would have been 24 cents per share, compared with 13 cents per share a year ago.
"We are pleased our earnings per share from continuing operations, excluding the non-cash goodwill impairment charge, were up significantly for the second quarter of 2004 compared to the same period in 2003," said Erroll B. Davis, Jr., the firm's chairman and chief executive officer. |
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