Caroline Egli, vice president of administration for Kapalua Land Co., said the golf courses were open and play was proceeding.

The groundskeepers, who are represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union 142, said they planned to obey police officers and not block the entrance to the resort.

Leonard Nakoa, a groundskeeper and union representative, said today's strike was over a union complaint that management had given them only three days at the end of January to take the company's "last and final offer" to members for possible ratification. Normally, the union would need at least a week, Nakoa said.

He described the last offer as a 9 percent pay raise over the life of a contract that would run three years and eight months. The two sides have not met since Feb. 25, he said.

Egli disputed Nakoa's characterization of the company's offer.

"We're trying very hard not to negotiate this contact in the media," she said. But the 9 percent hourly raise "is not the company's proposal. The company's proposal is greater than that amount."