Contract Management Programs

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l (ALPA), which represents the pilots of Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. (Pinnacle), filed suit in U.S. District Court Thursday against Pinnacle management. ALPA asserts that Pinnacle violated the Railway Labor Act (RLA), the federal statute that governs contract negotiations in the airline industry, when it unilaterally implemented pilot bonus programs by changing the status quo pay and working conditions of the pilots without first bargaining and reaching agreement with ALPA.

"Pinnacle management is circumventing the law and this Union in its attempt to address our pilot shortage, which is caused by low pay and inferior working conditions. The company should be focused on working cooperatively with ALPA at the bargaining table for a comprehensive solution to improve pay and working conditions for all Pinnacle pilots as quickly as possible," said Capt.

Hampton company awarded $74.5M government contract

Hampton defense contractor Spectrum Inc. was awarded Friday with a $74.5 million government contract for work on Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs.

The five-year contract will create as many as 45 new jobs for Spectrum, a handful of which will be in Hampton, said CEO Jeff Wassmer. Most of the work will be based at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. But, because the company will increase its work force by nearly 50 percent, more management and back-office support staff will be needed in Hampton, Wassmer said.

Spectrum, which has 107 employees, plans to finish 2008 with more than double that amount. The company also projects to more than double its annual revenues this year, based on contracts already on the books.

Purchasing Blogs

Ray Mazzoleni is the corporate purchasing manager, services at Genzyme Corp. He has extensive purchasing and contracts management experience working with start up and Fortune 500 organizations in high tech and service industries, including: Lotus Development Corp., Iron Mountain Records Management and the Thomson Corp.

Ray has developed and managed corporate purchasing functions, established programs to meet cost reduction objectives and implemented systems to increase operational efficiency. He has also been active in purchasing education serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and authoring a self-study course, "Achieving Success in Purchasing." Ray is a lifetime Certified Purchasing Manager (C.P.M.) through the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) and has served on the Board of Directors of the Purchasing Management Association of Boston (PMAB), New Hampshire and the New England Minority Purchasing Council.

Tata Consultancy Services Wins End-to-End Outsourcing Deal in Mexico ...

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), (BSE: TCS.BO) , a leading IT services, business solutions and outsourcing firm, announced that it had won a four year contract valued at over US$200 million with the Social Security Institute of Mexico (IMSS). With over 370,000 employees and providing coverage to over 50 million Mexican citizens, IMSS is the largest organization of its kind in Latin America. TCS won this engagement following a public bid process and a rigorous assessment based on technology and financial parameters over three other leading global and local technology companies.

In its role as the strategic IT services partner for IMSS, TCS will provide end to end IT services including application maintenance and support, custom software development, business analysis services, management of strategic IT programs and value added initiatives for the organization's affiliates.

Albemarle Earns Wildlife Habitat Certification at Orangeburg Plant ...

(CSRwire) ORANGEBURG, S.C., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- It's not every day that a chemical company gets cited for creating wetlands. But the prestigious Wildlife Habitat Council now has recognized specialty chemicals maker Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) twice in as many years for Albemarle's innovative wetlands programs at two of the company's U.S. plant sites. (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071105/NEM138 ) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050801/ALBEMARLELOGO ) After a couple of years of planning and six months of preparation, land development, and sheer physical labor, Albemarle's Orangeburg employee- and contract-worker-based Wildlife Habitat team recently received word that its newly developed habitat has been certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council's (WHC) Corporate Certification/International Accreditation Program as a commendable wildlife habitat management and environmental education program.