Posted on: Saturday, March 8, 2003

Groundskeepers strike at Kapalua Golf Resort

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Managers were mowing the fairways and greens of the Kapalua Golf Resort on Maui yesterday as 120 groundskeepers went on strike at one of Hawai'i's premier golf sites, company and union officials said.

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

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

Leonard Nakoa, a grounds-keeper and union representative, said the strike is 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 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.