Hundreds search for relief at job fair
By Michele Kayal
Advertiser Staff Writer
On a bone-sopping rainy day, a couple hundred of Hawai'i's hardest hit workers crammed their union headquarters to apply for a handful of jobs.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Cars were double-parked outside the Local 5 offices of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union yesterday as more than 200 job-hungry workers came through in two hours, looking for field positions eradicating invasive species. The Research Corporation of the University of Hawai'i, which is running the $1.5 million program, has about 230 jobs available, said Research Corp. human resources director Nelson Sakamoto. But only 33 of those are on O'ahu, where hotels have been hardest hit.
Mario Hernandez, a former hotel cook, completes an employment application form at the Local 5 job fair. The Pauoa resident has not worked since Sept. 11. Nearly 38,000 unemployment claims have been filed in Hawai'i since that day.
"We're hoping there will be more funding in the future," Sakamoto said.
The jobs come under the Emergency Environmental Workforce, established during a special session of the Legislature last month to help employ workers laid off because of the economic downturn that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
About 50 applications were collected in the morning for jobs pulling the pest plant miconia, stamping out fire ants, taking care of dengue fever hot spots, and eradicating coqui frogs. Nearly 100 applications were taken at other sites the day before, Sakamoto said.
But nearly half of the jobs are on Maui, with 85 on the Big Island, and 12 on Kaua'i. The Research Corp. also is accepting applications at state work force development offices, Sakamoto said, and has as many as 30 other positions available.
The eradication jobs would last about three months and would start in December.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 that sent worldwide tourism into a tailspin, Hawai'i's economy has plummeted. Nearly 38,000 unemployment claims have been filed since then.
Local 5 financial secretary-treasurer Eric Gill, who organized the job fair, said at least 1,500 of his 11,000 members don't have enough work to qualify for medical coverage. He could not quantify how many more have had their hours severely reduced.
"The impact hasn't been fully fleshed out yet because a lot of people have been taking vacation so others will have work," Gill said. "We saw a lot of people come in (yesterday) for not nearly enough jobs."
Statewide hotel occupancy was at less than 57 percent in the week ended Nov. 17, a drop of more than 23 percent from the same week last year. Waikiki hotels have been among the hardest hit, because they are more dependent than Neighbor Island properties on the Japanese market, which is off about 50 percent.
Rain chased the job fair that was supposed to be held in the union's courtyard into its headquarters building on Ala Wai Boulevard, where hopeful applicants lined the walls, eating plates of spaghetti or beef stew that had been donated by the major Waikiki hotels.
"We just want an application so if there's a vacancy they'll call us," said Jesusa Balicao, a housekeeper at the Royal Hawaiian who sat with colleague Maria Duldulao eating spaghetti. Duldulao hasn't worked for more than a month.
Ray Perez, a bartender at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort who has been at the property for 15 years, since its days as the Hawaiian Regent, hasn't worked in more than two weeks. Perez survived the downturn during the Gulf War, but he says he's not sure he wants to stick around for what's coming next. He was at the fair yesterday to see whether anything was available that might offer a career change.
"I've been with the hotel so long," he said. "I relied on it. I thought it would always be there. But times have changed."
