By Frank Cho
Advertiser Staff Writer
In her first day as trustee of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 5, Sherri Chiesa said former Local 5 financial secretary-treasurer Eric Gill is facing more charges surrounding unauthorized payments to union staffers during his 10 months in office.
Gill and Local 5’s executive board were removed from office yesterday by Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International president John Wilhelm. The move came after several Local 5 members charged Gill with violating union bylaws and failing to negotiate new contracts for union members.
Some Local 5 members have come forward again reiterating charges against Gill of financial malpractice, saying Gill misappropriated money through illegal pay raises and other non-approved expenditures. Chiesa said a new hearing on those charges has not been set. She said, however, it should happen in "the not too-distant future."
Gill denied the charges yesterday. "They are not satisfied with the meat, now they want to go after blood," Gill said.
Local 5 is the biggest hotel workers’ union in a state where tourism is the No. 1 industry. With more than a dozen contracts unsettled and thousands of union members working under expired contracts or temporary agreements, the international union decided last week to step in.
Chiesa, who is the international union’s western regional director, took control of Local 5 yesterday morning and is moving to settle the contracts and prepare for new elections. "It is actually very simple, the priority is to get the union functioning and united again with respect to the hotel negotiations," Chiesa said.
The decision to put Chiesa in charge of the 10,000-member hotel and restaurant workers’ union Local 5 followed a hearing last week that looked into allegations that the union was in turmoil under Gill’s leadership. The international union decided to put Chiesa in charge, hoping it would end factional fighting between supporters of Gill and the local union’s 14-member executive board.
Chiesa is running for financial secretary-treasurer of the international union at the union’s convention in July. If elected, that could affect labor negotiations in Hawai‘i, she said. "I am hoping to be elected at that convention, but certainly it would create a huge problem for me trying to juggle this trusteeship," Chiesa said.
Gill defeated long-time labor leader Tony Rutledge last year in a close and bitterly fought election for the top Local 5 job. The two have been at odds in the past, but feuding between Gill and Rutledge supporters on the Local 5 board escalated in recent months. In October, Rutledge supporters asked the international to appoint a trustee and accused Gill of breaking union bylaws.
"Mr. Gill says that the problems at Local 5 are primarily because of the executive board’s interference with his work. He implies that a trusteeship was imposed on Local 5 because of the executive board’s actions. This is total fabrication on his part," Arlene Ilae, senior vice president of the executive board, said in a statement yesterday.
In a confidential special master’s report to Wilhelm in December, commissioned by the international union, investigators blamed Gill for much of the turmoil. "I am prepared to rebut that report. I’m not worried, I didn’t do anything wrong," Gill said.
In addition to the union’s internal hearing, Ilae said the executive board will ask for a Public Review Board, appointed by the U.S. Justice Department, for an independent review of Gill’s actions while he was financial secretary-treasurer.
Frank Cho can be reached by phone at 525-8088, or by e-mail at fcho@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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