TVA adds 700 workers for Sequoyah refueling
After generating more than 13.5 billion kilowatt hours electricity over the past 18 months, the Tennessee Valley Authority began a scheduled refueling outage Friday on the Unit 2 reactor at its Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Soddy-Daisy.
TVA is bringing in an extra 700 utility and contract workers during the maintenance outage over the next several weeks. About 10,000 work activities are planned, including loading new fuel assemblies, performing inspections of reactor components, maintenance of plant equipment and installing unit enhancements.
“Outages like this are vital to continuing nuclear power’s role as a key supplier of reliable, low-cost, clean electricity to those we serve in the Tennessee Valley,” said Tony Williams, Sequoyah’s site vice president.
Sequoyah Unit 2 is one of seven operational TVA nuclear reactors in Tennessee and Alabama which collectively supply about one third of TVA’s power.
Minority supply group honors local VW plant
Volkswagen’s Chattanooga operation has been named “Corporation of the Year” by the TriState Minority Supplier Development Council.
Also, Edkedsha (KeeKee) Mathis, Volks- wagen Group of America’s supplier diversity manager for purchasing, was named “Corporate Representative of the Year” by the organization.
Volkswagen accepted the awards during the annual Impact Awards Dinner in Nashville. The group selected Volkswagen Chattanooga for providing minority business opportunities.
“This recognition does not mean our work is done, but only reinforces our efforts. We remain dedicated to promoting a diverse future,” said Christian Koch, Volkswagen Chattanooga’s chief executive.
May job fairs hire for hundreds of jobs
The Georgia Department of Labor has scheduled hiring fairs next month to fill hundreds of jobs being added or replaced by area employers.
On Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Quality Staffing will try to hire 100 entry-level quality control employees to work in Rock Spring. The jobs will begin at $11 an hour.
Nissan Brake in LaFayette, Ga., is recruiting 60 full-time manufacturing employees at a job fair next Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Fort Oglethorpe City Hall, 500 City Hall Drive. Nissin is recruiting for casting technicians, industrial equipment maintenance workers and machine operators for jobs paying from $11 to $24 an hour.
A job fair also is set for Thursday, May 11, from 3-7 p.m. at the Walker County Civic Center to hire workers for Amedisys Home Health and Hospice Care, Audia Plastics, Clumpies Ice Cream, Coca-Cola, Dixie Collision, Dollar General, EnviroGuard, Hammer Down OC, Hayes State Prison, Jimmy Simpson Foundation, Komatsu America Corp., Lake Winnepesaukah, Lookout Mountain Community Services, Mohawk Industries, Primary Health Care Centers, Quality Machine, Rock City, Roper Corp., Ruby Falls, Sprint, Shaw Industries, Vanguard National Trailer Corp., Victory Sign Industries LTD., Walker County Emergency Services, Walker County Sheriff Department, Walker State Prison and Wal-Mart.
Apple ceases payments to Qualcomm for iPhone
Apple is refusing to pay any royalties owed to mobile chip maker Qualcomm for some of the features in the iPhone, escalating a patent feud that has turned the former business partners into bitter adversaries.
The latest twist in the dispute represents a major blow for Qualcomm, which depends on licensing fees for a large portion of its revenue. Apple’s decision to withhold royalties will cost Qualcomm up to $500 million in the current quarter alone, based on revised revenue estimates that Qualcomm released Friday.
“This is getting ugly, the level of hostility just went up another notch,” said technology analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy.
As retaliation, Qualcomm could seek a court order halting iPhone sales until Apple pays the royalties that Qualcomm contends it’s owed, Moorhead said.
Employment costs up by most in a decade
Wages and benefits paid to U.S. civilian workers grew steadily in the first three months of the year.
The Employment Cost Index, which tracks wages and benefits, was up 0.8 percent in the first quarter, the Labor Department said Friday. That’s the biggest quarterly growth since December 2007 and slightly faster than the 0.5 percent growth in the last quarter of 2016.
Wages and salaries, which account for 70 percent of compensation costs, rose 0.8 percent. Benefit costs, which cover pensions and health insurance, increased 0.7 percent.
The index has shown steady improvement as the U.S. unemployment rate has fallen to 4.5 percent.