Concrete talks slated today

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Striking Teamsters and Ameron Hawaii representatives will meet again today at 10 a.m. after the company asked union officials to return with a counterproposal to try to end a 56-day-old concrete strike.

The two sides met yesterday for the first time since March 18, when Ameron Hawaii presented its "last, best and final offer."

The union rejected the offer and has since resolved its separate strike with Hawaiian Cement, Ameron's main competitor

The Hawaiian Cement settlement reignited O'ahu's stalled construction industry, which still hopes for a boom in building activity this year.

George West, Ameron Hawaii's vice president of operations for O'ahu, said he returned to the union's Kalihi headquarters with the same offer he placed on the negotiating table March 18.

The company's 5-year proposal includes the original 10 percent increase in employee contributions to their medical plans — for a total of 30 percent — that has been a sticking point in the strike. The plan would call for pay increases of $1 an hour for the first two years of the contract, followed by increases of 60 cents an hour for each of the following three years.

The proposal was presented by two executives from Ameron's parent company, Terry O'Shea, senor vice president of human resources, and Bill Smith, senior vice president of operations, who asked that the offer be presented to the union's membership for a vote, West said.

But Teamsters President Mel Kahele had a different version of yesterday's talks.

"This proposal is more of a disadvantage to us than what he (West) had in the March 18 proposal," Kahele said. "...We're hoping that the company (will) seriously look at our counterproposal" so the strike can be ended.

Kahele didn't reveal what the union may propose in a counteroffer.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.