Work stoppage hits hotels

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

With talks continuing late into the night and no news of a contract deal, six major Waikiki hotels were hit with at least a partial work stoppage today.

As of midnight last night — when the daylong work stoppage was to begin — hotel and union officials were still negotiating.

A Sheraton official acknowledged that at least the first shift of hotel employees would not be coming to work.

Union officials had said there was a possibility of calling off today's work action if a contract deal was reached early enough last evening.

"We'll cancel if they make us an offer we can recommend to our members," Tony Rutledge, president of Unity House and a member of the union contract negotiations team said as he walked into the Sheraton Waikiki to begin talks at 2 p.m. "If we don't get something we can recommend, we'll call for a strike vote."

Rutledge said yesterday that if negotiations continued too long into the evening — even past 8 p.m. — attempts to call off the work stoppage may not be complete. "There would be some confusion," he said.

Early this morning, officials were still negotiating.

The 5,000 members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 5 were being told late last night not to report to work for any shifts today and to instead meet at 10 a.m. at Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.

"We must be prepared to take our message to the streets," the union told its members in a recorded "hotline" message last night, encouraging them to take part in the work stoppage. The recording said union negotiators were prepared to work throughout the night and into the morning to get a contract.

Union officials had said that if a contract deal were reached, other meetings could be scheduled to better accommodate members' work schedules.

Officials said they would use the meetings to review a proposed contract. If no contract deal had been reached, they said, a strike authorization vote could be taken at today's work stoppage meeting.

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

Officials with several of the hotels affected by the negotiations said yesterday that they remained hopeful, but had prepared for the possibility of a work stoppage.

"We have a plan, but we're not allowed to discuss the details," said Scott Kawasaki, public relations manager for the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Resort and Spa.

"We're trying to remain optimistic until the end," said B.J. Whitman, public relations director for the Sheraton Waikiki and the Royal Hawaiian, who also declined to give details.

Several union employees last night said they would observe a work stoppage.

Michael Gaviola, a bell services worker and union member at the Sheraton Waikiki, worked until 10 last night. He said that if he hadn't heard otherwise by the end of his shift, he intended to go to the meeting in the morning.

"I'm a team player for the union," he said. "I'll do what the team says."

Yesterday's talks were the first since negotiations broke off at 2 a.m. Saturday. Union officials said then that no progress had been made on key issues, including subcontracting. The use of subcontractors — which allows hotels to hire nonunion workers for some jobs — is a practice favored by the hotels and opposed by the union.

"Subcontracting is the main issue," Rutledge said yesterday. "We've been negotiating over subcontracting for the past 13 or 14 years. It has reached a point now where we really have to take a stand."

He said some issues have been moving forward but some are still left on wages. Rutledge said the initial proposal by the union, submitted to the Hawaii Hotel Council Friday, sought a 5 percent wage increase each year over three years.

Rutledge said the union had presented a proposal to management Friday offering some concessions on salary raises and starting salaries for new hires.

Reached early last night, Keith Vieira, a member of the hotel negotiating team and senior vice president of Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Hawai'i, which operates four Sheraton hotels that would be affected, would say only that negotiators hoped to keep talking. On Saturday, Vieira said he was optimistic that a deal could be reached before midnight.

A work stoppage and possible strike that could snarl Waikiki, inconvenience thousands of tourists and damage local businesses also could coincide with the start of the Asian Development Bank conference, which begins Wednesday.

Thousands of executives and finance ministers from around the world are scheduled to attend, many staying at hotels that would be affected.

The union, which has been working under a contract extension for more than a year, says a record number of visitors gave hotels a profitable year in 2000. Hotel owners have said a projected slowdown in the state's economy and stagnant visitor arrivals mean they likely cannot afford to pay what the unions are seeking.

The union that represents about 11,000 hotel employees statewide already has rejected at least one contract proposed by management since discussions started last year.

Dozens of other hotel labor agreements at other properties around the state also have expired or are about to, but talks mostly have been on hold. Many see this hotel master agreement as a bellwether indicating what other properties will pay their union employees.

Unity House, a nonprofit set up by Rutledge's father to support Local 5 and other union members, has announced that it will provide a strike fund to match money paid by the union, up to $2 million.

Rutledge, in addition to leading Unity House, led Local 5 until he was ousted from the top spot in elections last year by Eric Gill.

In February, Gill was removed from his position when national union leadership put Local 5 in trusteeship, following a dispute between Rutledge and Gill supporters.

Sherri Chiesa, the union's western regional director and trustee for Local 5, appointed both men to the union contract negotiations team.

Gill, as he entered the negotiations yesterday, said the strange bedfellows on the union negotiation team was not a problem.

"We have some interesting caucus discussions, but it is going well," he said. "Our differences are political, not personal, and we want the same thing on this one."