No new negotiations held in cement strike
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Negotiators took a break from talks yesterday as striking cement workers, concerned about who will foot rising healthcare costs, walked the picket lines.
"Between the boys and Ameron, it's been ongoing over the past couple of contracts," said picket captain Sam Keli'iho'omalu. "We've been giving and giving, and we're just tired already."
"We did everything we could to avoid a strike," said Mel Kahele, president of Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996.
Michael Coad, vice president and chief negotiator for Hawaiian Cement, said he thought having the employees pay for part of their health benefits would give them a stake in trying to keep the price of healthcare down.
The cost of healthcare has been the stumbling block in negotiations between the Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996 and both Ameron Hawai'i and Hawaiian Cement Company. It was the issue that shut down talks last week and led 116 Ameron workers and 67 Hawaiian Cement workers to walk off their jobs and take up picket signs, and it was the issue that stymied talks again Saturday night between the Local and Ameron.
No new talks had been scheduled late last night for either Ameron or Hawaiian Cement. Company officials said they were waiting for calls from either the federal mediator or the union.
Mel Kahele, president of Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996, said he expected to discuss continuing negotiations with the mediator tomorrow.
"Hopefully," he said, "we can get back to the table and come up with some type of agreement we can all live with."
Jim Santangelo, a vice president for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters who oversees the union's western division, flew in from the Mainland over the weekend.
"He's working with the committees and assisting in negotiations with the companies," Kahele said. "He's helpful in keeping morale up. He's a motivator."
Santangelo visited Hawai'i last fall to help with the bus strike.
Ameron Hawai'i employees now pay a 20 percent copay for health insurance premiums, a concession negotiated five years ago when the cement workers were represented by a different union. This year, the workers want to eliminate the copay. Managers want to increase the employee payment to 30 percent of the bill.
"Rising healthcare costs are a national problem," said George West, Ameron's vice president of operations for O'ahu. "Healthcare is skyrocketing. This is a cost-containment issue. We are a profitable company, and we want to stay a profitable company."
Ameron's premiums for employee healthcare went up in October and are set to increase again in April, he said.
"Our premiums will go up 21 percent in a 12-month period," West said.
West said the company, during negotiations on Saturday, offered to assess the copay on a pretax basis, which he said would decrease or eliminate a change in the workers' take home pay.
When that offer was rejected, he said, the company gave up its attempts at increasing the copay, and offered to leave it at 20 percent as part of a proposal.
That proposal was also rejected, he said.
Kahele said the negotiations committee was angry at that point.
"We'd been trying to talk them into going back to the status quo for months," he said. "They (the employee on the committee) said, 'We want zero copay, and we're willing to fight for it.' "
When contract talks first began, Kahele said, Ameron wanted to increase the employee copay to 40 percent, and union negotiators talked them down to 30 percent.
Ameron employees also hope to regain some of their sick leave, which was traded in for a cash settlement amounting to 25 cents on the dollar five years ago, he said.
Hawaiian Cement is also asking for an employee copay on health insurance premiums.
Michael Coad, vice president and chief negotiator for the company, said he thought having the employees pay for part of their health benefits would give them a stake in trying to keep the price of healthcare down.
An employee who contributes would use the services more wisely, he said.
"My research shows that 85 percent of companies in the private sector have some sort of employee contribution," Coad said. "State of Hawai'i employees pay 40 percent."
Coad said healthcare has been central to negotiations between companies and unions across the country, including an ongoing strike by grocery workers in California, who have been off the job since October.
Kahele said Hawaiian Cement is asking for the copay because it wants parity with Ameron, making the issue even more pressing in negotiations with the two groups.
Hawaiian Cement workers are concerned that if they concede to pay a portion of the healthcare premium during these contract negotiations, Hawaiian will ask them to pay a larger percentage next year, he said.
Kahele said workers at both companies feel that they made concessions during the negotiations of previous contracts, when both companies were under financial constraints. Now that both Ameron and Hawaiian Cement are doing well, the workers want something back, he said.
Hawaiian Cement made $15 million in profits last year, he said. He said he thought Ameron's were in the range of $9 million to $12 million.
"They just dug their heels in the sand," Kahele said of the two companies. "We did everything we could to avoid a strike."
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
