Unification tops Local 5 agenda

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Gill: Members demand unity

The campaign for leadership of one of Hawai'i's largest unions ended when ballots were counted for the Hotel Employee and Restaurant Employees Union on Friday, but healing the rift among leaders and membership may take a while longer.

Although winners and losers agree that contract negotiations are the priorities, Eric Gill and top Local 5 officers met yesterday and decided unification needed to be addressed immediately.

A united front is likely to be critical in upcoming negotiations with six of Waikiki's largest hotels. Union and management negotiators will take up the issue of subcontracting work to non-union members, a practice Local 5 wants stopped.

Talks could begin as early as September. Nearly 5,000 union workers will be affected by the outcome.

"Our members want unity," Gill said. "They demand it."

Gill defeated opposition leader Tony Rutledge Friday 2,527 to 2,506. Across the ballot, however, Gill gained positions and power. Members of Gill's ticket were elected to 12 of 15 of the local's officer positions.

Hernando Ramos Tan, vice president of the new administration, said the unification effort includes figuring out the best way to keep staff members loyal to Rutledge from sabotaging Gill.

"We'll have to make them understand the election is over," Tan said yesterday. "Last time we offered them the olive branch, and they used it to stab us in the back."

Tan said there may be turnover among the local's hired staff. Gill, seeking to avoid offending members who voted against him, called the process "management restructuring."

Rutledge: Wants Gill to prove himself

Local 5 is familiar with restructuring. Its members have elected people to fill three-year officer positions twice in the last 18 months. Gill was elected both times.

He first won leadership in March 2000, defeating Rutledge, the incumbent and a longtime local labor leader, by 39 votes. That victory was sullied for Gill when the membership elected people from the Rutledge ticket to almost every other leadership post, a situation Gill said was paralyzing.

Rutledge supporters on the executive board, Gill said, obstructed his every move.

The Rutledge camp countered that Gill was responsible for the paralysis, and launched charges of incompetence and failure to obey union by-laws. They took their complaints to the international leadership of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employee's union, and Gill responded by filing counter-charges.

The international leadership, excluding the international vice president, Tony Rutledge, ousted Gill and the other officers, putting Local 5 under temporary trusteeship.

Trustee Sherri Chiesa enlisted the assistance of Rutledge and Gill to negotiate a hotel workers' contract covering workers at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Sheraton Waikiki, Sheraton Moana Surfrider, Sheraton Princess Ka'iulani, Hyatt Regency and Hilton Hawaiian Village. The contract was reached May 7, averting a work stoppage that union workers had planned for that day.

Shortly after negotiations ended, Chiesa called another election.

More than half of Local 5's 10,000 members voted. Although Gill won by an even tinier margin, many of the other candidates in his camp won by comfortable vote spreads.

Rutledge yesterday blamed the international leadership for the losses on his slate. Elections had been called too quickly, he said, and he'd barely had time to campaign.

Although Rutledge agreed that a united front was essential, he wants to see Gill prove himself before giving him his support. If he were in Gill's position, Rutledge said, he would be preparing for a strike.

"It's sink or swim now," he said. "He doesn't have any more excuses."