Employers fear lengthy teachers strike
| • | Children spend day at office |
| • | State, striking teachers 'very, very firm in their resolve' |
By Glenn Scott and Frank Cho
Advertiser Staff Writers
Coping with the first day of the teachers' strike, employers said yesterday that their workers are managing in the short run to balance normal job demands with urgent needs to care for their school-age children.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
But spokesmen for some of the state's largest employers expressed concern about long-term prospects. They warned that an extended strike could disrupt work schedules, wear down working parents and undermine businesses' productivity.
Michael Mazzella stands over son, Matthew, 5, who writes a thank-you letter to First Interstate Bank for having a daycare center. Speaking to Michael Mazzella are second-grader Michael Lum, left, and sixth-grader Rex Katahara.
Some employers said they may look at other child-care options if the strike drags on for weeks.
Yesterday, though, they said the Hawai'i State Teachers Association strike did not appear to reduce staffing or services. The general message from O'ahu businesses was that employers were continuing with business as usual, thanks in great part to adequate planning and the availability of the aunties and grandparents who link up Hawai'i's network of extended families.
Few requested help
At Castle Medical Center in Kailua, marketing director David Earles said the hospital had earlier queried its 800 employees but received few requests for help with childcare.
"We're hoping this won't be a long strike," Earles said. "For now we're in a holding pattern, but we're definitely putting together a task force in case we need to do more."
Other employers as well said they began preparing weeks ago and had advised workers to look for alternative care for their children in case of a strike.
"We were taking surveys," said Nathan Hokama, a spokesman for Tesoro Hawaii. "We found that most employees either had extended families or had made other arrangements. I have only confirmed one instance where an employee switched a shift, so it's probably just a handful of people affected."
Hokama said there was no increase in employees calling in sick yesterday or taking time off. Tesoro has about 700 employees in Hawai'i.
Sam Shenkus, a spokeswoman for tour operator Roberts Hawaii, said company officials are calculating the effects on staffing in case the strike continues next week.
"For a company like Roberts, we can't tell a visitor, 'You can't go to the Arizona Memorial because we have a school strike,' " she said. "That's one of the challenging parts of having an economy where tourism is such a cricitical component."
To help its 1,300 employees, the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel made arrangements this week to convert the second-floor Molokai Room into a child-care center with a capacity of 200 children. Parents brought 15 children yesterday, one of the workers said, and more are expected today.
"I think a lot of people are taking a wait-and-see attitude," said B.J. Whitman, director of public relations.
Advance warning
Ann Nishida, a spokeswoman for Verizon Hawaii, which employs more than 2,000 people, said the teachers' strike had no effect on operations.
"It's been nothing unexpected, because our employees had so much advance warning to make arrangements," Nishida said. "If it carries over for longer than a couple of days, it could potentially become a problem."
Because hospitals must staff 24-hour patient-care units, most employees working such shifts are used to making flexible child-care arrangements, said Pat Oda, spokeswoman at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children.
She said Kapi'olani officials have urged supervisors to remain extremely flexible and assist any among the 2,000 staff workers facing child-care issues, as long as patient care needs are met.
Children brought to work
At Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, spokeswoman Jan Kagehiro said that same flexibility is at work, and most employees seem to have satisfied their needs, either through extended family or community resources.
In a pinch, though, some office employees brought their children to work. Kagehiro herself was among them, giving her 8-year-old daughter a seat in her office just for the day to read and do homework.
"Kaiser tries to make every accommodation to allow you to put your family first," she said.
If the strike continued next week, she noted, she would need to make more formal arrangements.
