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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, May 5, 2001

Union, hotels talk on new pact hoping to avert strike

By Frank Cho and Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writers

The hotel workers' union and management met late into the night with little word of progress as they worked to head off the possibility of a strike next week for 5,000 workers at six major Waikiki hotels.

Members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 5, AFL-CIO, and hotel management met briefly yesterday afternoon to acquaint the federal mediator, Ken Kawamoto, with the issues in the contract negotiations. Members took a break and then resumed talks at 7 p.m.

There was no word on how talks were progressing.

"Both sides are committed to negotiating as long as it takes to reach a settlement," Sherri Chiesa, the union's Western regional director and trustee for Local 5, said early in the evening.

Yesterday was the first time the two sides had met since the union called a work stoppage for Monday and said it was prepared to strike as soon as Tuesday if a contract agreement had not been reached by then.

The union, which has been working under a contract extension for more than a year, is asking for a 5 percent raise across the board in each of the proposed contract's three years and increased benefits for its members. It is also seeking to bar subcontracting jobs by hotels to nonunion labor.

Richard Rand, negotiator for the Council of Hawaii Hotels, said the hotels don't believe what the union is asking for is fair or justified. Rand said the council has made its own proposals, all of which include raises. He declined to give specifics.

Gov. Ben Cayetano said yesterday he is available to help if the two sides want to call on him. "If I can help in any way, then I'll do what I can," he said. "But collective bargaining is a process between two parties, and unless you get invited, you don't interfere."

The six hotels represented by the council are the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Sheraton Waikiki, Sheraton Moana Surfrider, Sheraton Princess Ka'iulani, Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa, and the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort & Spa.

Despite the sticking points, Rand said he remained optimistic an agreement could be reached by Monday, the day the union has asked its members to not report for work. Instead, union leaders want to hold a meeting at 10 a.m. to ratify a new contract, if one is reached over the weekend, or possibly to authorize a strike.

A strike could take a big bite out of Hawai'i's more than $10 billion visitor industry. It comes just over a week after the state's teachers and professors ended their own strikes, and coincides with the start of the Asian Development Bank conference, a major international meeting scheduled to bring thousands of executives and finance ministers from around the world.

Hotels involved are preparing for Monday's walkout.

"There will be a cutback in services to a degree," said David Uchiyama, a spokesman for the four Sheraton hotels. About 75 percent of Sheraton's 2,500 worker belong to Local 5, Uchiyama said.

Plans call for managers and other nonunion staff to do the work of union members who participate in the walkout, and temporarily close a number of hotel restaurants and retail outlets.

The last time Local 5 went on strike, it stayed on the picket line 22 days before a settlement was reached in 1990.

Frank Cho can be reached by phone at 525-8088, or by e-mail at fcho@honoluluadvertiser.com.