Flashback March 7, 2014--Price Fixing: Horizon, Sea Star to Pay $3.4M Fine

Sea Star Line is a subsidiary of TOTE Inc., the ocean shipping group of Saltchuk Resources Inc., which also owns and operates Young Bros. Ltd., Foss Maritime Hawaii --formerly Hawaiian Tug & Barge-- and Aloha Air Cargo Inc.  Sea Star's portion of the total settlement is $1.9M.

Hawai'i Free Press has inquired to Saltchuk and to Ethisphere--whose specialties include 'Anti-Corruption Program Verification'--and we will update if we receive a response.  Meanwhile feel free to amuse yourself by reading the self-congratulatory news release issued by the 'World's Most Ethical' price-fixers.  

Like price fixing, 'thought leadership' is a pretty good gig...until you get caught.

(Update: Saltchuk response posted below.)

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Saltchuk Named a 2014 World’s Most Ethical Company

Ethisphere Institute honors Saltchuk companies and the culture of ethics that unites them.

News Release from Saltchuk, March 21, 2014

SEATTLE, WA – Saltchuk, one of the nation’s leading freight transportation and distribution companies, announced today that it has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, an independent center of research promoting best practices in corporate ethics and governance, as a 2014 World’s Most Ethical Company®.

This is the first time that Saltchuk has been considered for this award, which recognizes organizations that continue to raise the bar on ethical leadership and corporate behavior. Saltchuk is one of only three companies in the transportation & logistics industry honored this year.

“The more than 6,500 employees of Saltchuk companies deserve the real honors,” says Saltchuk President, Tim Engle. “They live our values each day and take to heart that that the communities and customers we serve rely on us. A culture of ethics requires each employee make a personal commitment to live up to our organizational standards.”

“The entire community of World’s Most Ethical Companies believe that customers, employees, investors and regulators place a high premium on trust and that ethics and good governance are key in earning it,” said Ethisphere’s Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Erblich. “Saltchuk joins an exclusive community committed to driving performance through leading business practices. We congratulate everyone at Saltchuk for this extraordinary achievement.”

The World’s Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute’s Ethics Quotient™ framework. The Ethics Quotient framework has been developed over years of effort to provide a means to assess an organization’s performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics. The Ethics Quotient framework and methodology was determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere’s network of thought leaders and from the World’s Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.

Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (25%), reputation, leadership and innovation (20%), governance (10%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (25%) and culture of ethics (20%).

The full list of the 2014 World’s Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.

About the Ethisphere Institute

The Ethisphere® Institute is an independent center of research, best practices and thought leadership that promotes best practices in corporate ethics and governance and enables organizations to improve compliance, mitigate risk, and enhance relationships with employees, business partners, investors and the broad regulatory community. Ethisphere evaluates and benchmarks compliance and governance programs, honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program and publishes Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs that include: Ethics Inside® Certification, Compliance Leader Verification™ and Anti-Corruption Program Verification™. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: www.ethisphere.com.

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Saltchuk Response:   March 25, 2014

I appreciate the question as I’m sure those who are watching our industry are aware of the ongoing litigation involving Sea Star.

Open litigation was shared and taken into consideration by the Ethisphere Institute when considering, and ultimately naming Saltchuk a 2014 World’s Most Ethical Company.

The discovery of antitrust violations at Sea Star 5 years ago was a traumatic event for Saltchuk. Even though the unethical activity was tied to a very small number of individuals at a single Saltchuk-family company, the entire Saltchuk family of companies embarked on a multi-year company-wide effort to reinforce our values and ensure something like that never happens again. 

We are proud that Ethisphere has named Saltchuk a 2014 World’s Most Ethical Company. The honors reflect the hard work and dedication of our employees and the commitment Saltchuk has made to reinforce our values and empower our employees to live by those values. 

Thank you again, please let me know if you have additional questions.

Emily Reiter

Saltchuk Public Relations & Charitable Giving

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BI: The Most Ethical Companies In The World