Strike effects spreading
• Laid-off mason limits family's spending
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Mason Tito Yagin, who was laid off from Foundations Hawaii, was the sole bread winner for his family: wife Febe; from left, nephew Devin Gabrillo; children Tyler, 5; Kelvin, 9 (background); Taylor, 6; Tifeny, 8; and baby Jayden. See story.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Some 211 members of Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996 walked picket lines again around the island's two major cement companies, Ameron Hawaii and Hawaiian Cement. No contract negotiations were held and none were scheduled.
Fears that the strike would slow the red-hot pace of Hawai'i's construction industry became reality yesterday for developer Stanford Carr, who is hoping to complete The Colony, a twin-tower, four-story condominium complex in Hawai'i Kai.
Carr was scheduled to have a major cement "pour" today, followed by a second on Friday.
"It ain't happening," Carr said. "This will have a domino effect on everybody, from the carpenters to the framers to everybody doing the electrical."
Every day of delay will take at least a day or more to make up somewhere else in the project, Carr said. At the same time, he said, "interest doesn't sleep."
"We're spending money by the millions," Carr said. "Until that building is completed and we can close our sales to pay down debt, it just continues to add costs to the contract."
Sales prices are fixed on units that have been pre-sold, so the cost of the delays will come out of Carr's profits, he said. Units that aren't committed will have to be sold at higher prices to cover the extra expenses, Carr said.
"Everybody pays one way or another," Carr said. "Everyone pays."
Even businesses unrelated to construction started to see a drop in sales yesterday, including eateries near the concrete operations.
At the El Charro Mexican Restaurant on Sand Island Access Road, which caters to many construction workers, business was down 10 percent to 12 percent, owner John C. Madrigal said.
"Any strike that hits here in the island eventually hits everybody," Madrigal said.
Kai Zheng, manager at L&L Drive-Inn on Sand Island Access Road, noticed a slight difference yesterday when the workers walked off.
"It was a little bit slower without them," Zheng said.
More layoffs possible
Lawrence Boyd, a labor economist at the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu, conservatively estimates the cement strike could indirectly cost another 237 nonunion people their jobs, and lead to layoffs of 350 construction workers on large projects and 182 working on residential homes.
Boyd believes a strike would cost O'ahu's economy $2.3 million a week in direct and indirect lost revenue. The $2.3 million in weekly losses does not include the ripple effect of money that won't be spent because workers will be out of jobs.
Some 144 Teamsters struck Ameron Hawaii on Friday, followed by 67 Hawaiian Cement employees on Saturday primarily over two issues: decreased sick days and greater employee costs for healthcare.
Late Saturday, Jim Santangelo, the vice president for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters who oversees the union's Western division, flew into Honolulu. But union business in San Diego will force him to leave today, sooner than expected.
Santangelo said he was asked by Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa to assist union officials in Hawai'i. Santangelo visited Hawai'i last fall to help with last summer's Teamsters' strike against TheBus.
Last night, Michael Chambrella, legal counselor for the Teamsters, said: "Hopefully we can get back to the table sometime soon. We hope the companies are willing to sit down and discuss movement, but we haven't heard anything."
Santangelo said striking workers will receive about $200 a week in benefits from the union.
Three Teamsters have applied for state unemployment benefits, which pay a maximum of $417 per week, said James Hardway of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. But it's too soon to say whether striking cement workers will be entitled to benefits, he said.
The cement workers' requests for unemployment are subject to a review that will begin at least seven days after the start of the strikes, Hardway said.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that striking workers are not entitled to benefits if their companies' operations are slowed by 20 percent or more.
Striking teachers, for instance, did not receive benefits "because the whole school system shut down," Hardway said. "Business stopped. (Striking) nurses received unemployment benefits because the hospitals' operations were not curtailed by 20 percent or more."
Divided over medical costs
Yesterday, Ameron's 52 non-union employees began feeling the effects of the walkout.
Company officials yesterday were still deciding exactly how many of them would be temporarily laid off, said George West, Ameron's vice president of operations for O'ahu. Some of them were already taking vacation time in lieu of a layoff, West said.
"It went into effect immediately," he said.
Hawaiian Cement had no similar plans yesterday for its nonunion employees, said company vice president Michael Coad. He could not immediately say how many nonunion employees work at Hawaiian Cement, although it's less than Ameron's 52.
"Part of my optimism is that this matter will be resolved in a pretty short time," Coad said. "If it lasts for any length of time, it's something we'd have to look at."
The striking cement workers are particularly upset over company proposals to have employees pay more for medical coverage.
Workers at Hawaiian Cement currently pay nothing, but the company wants them to bear 20 percent of the costs. Ameron wants its union employees to increase their payment from 20 percent to 30 percent.
Hawaiian Cement officials share the perspective of companies around the country arguing that the rising cost of medical care will slow if employees shoulder more of the expense — and therefore use the system more cautiously.
"From a union perspective, the employee perspective, they can say, 'You have degraded my medical care because I can no longer afford to get the medical treatment I used to get,' " said Bob Dove, CEO and president of HEMIC, Hawai'i's largest primary writer of workers' compensation policies. "From an employee perspective, they can say, 'We can no longer stay in business, or it damages our business, if the medical costs get so prohibitive that we can no longer provide the coverage.'"
Ameron Hawaii's medical costs to provide employee coverage through the Teamsters Health and Welfare Trust Fund in Honolulu have risen 10 percent to 20 percent every year over the past four years, West said.
This year, costs will jump 21 percent, he said.
"It's the fastest rising portion of our labor costs," West said. "It's not just for Ameron or Hawaiian Cement. It's a national problem."
Construction halted
Most of Ameron's workers — 60 cement mixer drivers — earn $25.54 an hour. But with an average of 55 hours per week in overtime, spread over six days, the highest paid Ameron Teamster earned $120,880 in 2002, West said. The median salary was $71,433.
At Hawaiian Cement, the highest paid union workers earned $116,000 in 2003 and the average employee made $85,000, Coad said.
Neither company opened its books to union negotiators or disclosed profits. Both acknowledge they make a profit.
But, along with rising medical costs, they also say they compete against each other in an expensive business.
"Our profitability helps us pay what I think are some of the best wages in this state," Coad said. "Our profitability also enables us to purchase our trucks, loaders, (bull) dozers that we need to do this business. A mixer truck costs $150,000 to $175,000 each. A quarry truck costs half a million and a bulldozer's $625,000. It's not uncommon to have annual purchases in excess of a half-million dollars per year."
For now, it appears the companies won't be repeating their arguments to Teamsters negotiators any time soon.
Federal mediator Ken Kawamoto feels "there needs to be a separation for a while," West said. "The (negotiating) committees are not looking toward any movement and they're not entertaining any proposals."
Yesterday that left projects suddenly facing uncertain construction schedules.
They even include the $2.2 billion plan to build and renovate 7,700 military homes, which has everyone from Hawai'i's congressional delegation to journeyman carpenters excited about the Islands' construction industry.
Work had already begun on some new homes, West said, and then halted just as quickly without concrete.
"That's the one everybody's looking at to lead us into the future," West said. "But we're not getting off to a good start."
Advertiser Staff Writer Mike Gordon contributed to this report. Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
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Laid-off mason limits family's spending
| • | Strike's impact
Major construction projects slowed by ccement strike: • Ko'olani luxury high-rise condo in Kaka'ako. Source: Ameron Hawaii and Hawaiian Cement |
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Tito Yagin, a 37-year-old mason, was laid off from his job with Foundations Hawaii Inc. because without cement, no one is pouring foundations.
Yagin's five children won't be going to Chuck E Cheese's as often as they like and the family's trip to Disneyland this summer is on hold. "I no go work, I cannot take them," said Yagin, the sole bread winner for the family.
Yagin was one of 50 employees at Foundations Hawaii who were laid off because of the cement workers' strike. With five years of experience, his take-home pay was $700 a week.
His wife, Febe, stays at their Waipahu home and takes care of their children, including a 1 1/2-year-old baby.
For now Yagin will dip into the tax refund he got recently to put food on the table and pay his bills, which include $327 a month for his Dodge Caravan and $600 for his half of the rent on their house. He splits that bill with his mother-in-law.
Yagin knows the tax refund will eventually run out.
"I'll have to find another job to get money to support my family," Yagin said.
— Debbie Sokei, Advertiser staff writer
