Hundreds of applicants vie for dockworker jobs
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Arlynn Orpilla stood for hours under the sun in a line that meandered out of The Plaza Best Western hotel and spilled onto Nimitz Highway, just to fill out one of 500 applications for a warehouse job at Matson Navigation Co.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Matson has two openings.
McCabe, Hamilton & Renny's five job openings attracted 800 applicants yesterday. Some even camped out to get a good spot in line at the Neal Blaisdell Center.
Besides applying for the Matson job, Orpilla later sat down at Neal Blaisdell Center, along with 800 other hopefuls, and filled out an application to become a stevedore for McCabe, Hamilton & Renny Co. Ltd.
For the three days they'll accept applications at the Blaisdell, McCabe officials printed 6,500 applications. The company has five stevedore openings.
Many of the people who filled out applications yesterday already have jobs. To them, the demand for a handful of dockworker jobs says less about Hawai'i's economy and more about moving up to a better-paying job.
"It's probably the premier job on this island," said Kristian Koverman, a 29-year-old driver for Meadow Gold Dairies. "Great pay, great benefits."
The dockworker jobs — essentially driving new cars off Matson ships and loading and unloading cargo containers for McCabe — rarely come open. Matson's latest openings are the result of retirements among 19 warehousemen.
And the jobs pay well — $28.49 per hour for Matson; $27.12 an hour for McCabe.
"Everybody wants to be a stevedore," Orpilla said. Two of her uncles work as stevedores and "they bank," she said. "They make good money."
In a room full of muscles and big bodies, Orpilla — a Hawai'i Air National Guard police officer, running back and strong safety for the Hawai'i Legends professional women's tackle football team — figures she has an edge.
"The stevedores have too many men," said Orpilla, 22. "They need to diversify."
Getting the applications filled out is the easy part for the companies' human resources officials. Narrowing the field to the top two and five candidates will be tough.
"I don't know how we'll do it," joked Derrick Urabe, Matson's manager for industrial relations. "Throw a dart?"
Matson last took mass applications four years ago and "it took us forever" to sift through them all, Urabe said.
Nalani Foreman, human resources director for McCabe, said it will take several weeks to pore over the four-page applications. Then a hiring committee will make recommendations.
"How do you get down to just five?" Foreman asked. "That's the tricky part. It's not going to be an easy task."
So people such as Craig Asing wait amid uncertainty.
Asing, 37, has worked the ramps for United Airlines ever since he graduated from 'Aiea High School in 1984. But United filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December and lost a record $3.2 billion.
He knows the odds are against his getting into Matson. But it's a chance to earn more pay and get more security.
"Everybody wants that," he said. "Once you're in, you'll stay in forever."
Kaimana Cortez, 26, stood with his girlfriend and 3-year-old daughter as applicants streamed out of the Blaisdell.
Cortez figures he could make at least $20,000 more a year as a stevedore over his current job running his own flooring company.
"I guess," he said, "I'll just leave my chances in the hands of God."
