Union cancels Sheraton contract
By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer
The union representing 2,500 workers at the four Waikiki Sheraton hotels has canceled its contract with the hotels and expects to begin informational picketing today.
Eric Gill, financial secretary-treasurer of Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, said yesterday that the union's negotiating committee took the action because it objects to the pace of talks with company officials. The two sides have been in talks since April.
The union is continuing to negotiate with the Sheraton hotels, Gill said, but canceling the contract gives it the freedom to picket the properties.
"We have not given up, we're still at the table," he said. "We had negotiating sessions Wednesday and Friday ... but the progress was not sufficient to give the committee confidence that the company was actually serious about settling, so they decided to take this action and basically clear the way for further actions that we may wish to do."
The two sides are scheduled to meet again July 18.
The four Waikiki Sheraton hotels — the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, the Princess Kaiulani, the Sheraton Waikiki and the Royal Hawaiian — are operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Keith Vieira, Starwood's senior vice president and director of operations in Hawai'i and French Polynesia, described the union's decision to cancel the contract as "fairly unprecedented."
"Usually you would negotiate until you reach a settlement and sometimes there's a strike vote and sometimes not," he said. "But canceling a contract as a way of picketing while still negotiating — I'm not sure what that solves."
Vieira said the hotels expect to try to abide by all terms of the contracts including continuing automatic payroll deductions for union dues — something hotels are not required to do if union contracts are canceled. During contract negotiations, federal labor law prohibits employers from making other material changes to conditions of employment, including changes in wages, medical and pension benefits and job rules, Gill said.
In past years, the major Waikiki hotel companies have negotiated as a group with Local 5. This is the first year the hotels are negotiating separately. Local 5 is in talks with the Sheraton hotels, the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Hyatt Regency Waikiki. Other Local 5 hotels, including the Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki and the Ala Moana Hotel, have not yet begun talks with the union.
Officials with the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Hyatt Regency Waikiki could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The union says it has several major contract issues with all of the hotels, including the increased workload that employees have had to assume because of job cuts when business dropped after the Sept. 11 attacks; job security provisions, including assurance that the union will remain in place if any hotel is sold and that non-union subcontractors in hotel operations will be limited; and wage and benefit improvements.
Gill said one reason the union's negotiating committee voted to cancel the Sheraton contract is that there had been "no positive movement" on the job security issues. Vieira said the company believes it has "language that is very fair to everyone and can solve everyone's needs."
Vieira said a key concern in the wake of the union's decision to cancel the contract is that news of the pickets could dissuade visitors from coming to Hawai'i, putting further strain on an industry still recovering from the Sept. 11 attacks.
Reach Susan Hooper at 525-8064 or shooper@honoluluadvertiser.com.
