Builder laying off staff

• Governor sees deal not far off

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Maureen Shannon has learned from her boss, Marshall Hickox, left, that she will be laid off from her job at Homeworks Construction Inc. because of work lost to the strike. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Some of the workers at Homeworks Construction Inc., a custom home builder and remodeler, start to cry as the vice president and part-owner tells them they have to be let go.

Most live paycheck to paycheck. And most have families who depend on those paychecks.

But perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the strike for Hickox is his fear that city and state officials aren't paying enough attention to the human and economic toll the work stoppage is having on O'ahu's construction industry.

"My guess is they have a hope, true or false, that this will end real quick," he said. "But every day of the strike equals weeks to get the machine rolling again, which is construction in this state."

No talks were held yesterday between striking members of the Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996 and Ameron Hawaii or Hawaiian Cement, the island's two largest concrete producers. No new negotiations have been scheduled.

Government agencies and local economists aren't tracking the layoffs and projects lost or delayed by the strike.

Economists have said the costs of a relatively short strike can be made up later in the year.

But that doesn't ease the pain for Maureen Shannon, a Homeworks Construction employee who will work her last day on Friday. She sent Gov. Linda Lingle two frustrated e-mails this week asking her to step in.

On Monday, she outlined the ramifications of the strike on O'ahu's construction industry and asked Lingle, "Where are you?"

The next day, she sent an e-mail saying, "effective Monday I'm on the unemployment line."

"Why isn't she in the middle of all of this?" Shannon said. "Why is nothing being done?"

Lingle said last night that she normally would not see such e-mails.

She said she still worries about the ramifications of the strike and that her chief of staff, Bob Awana, had spoken to all sides.

At the same time, Lingle doesn't believe a governor should get involved in a labor dispute unless it poses "an imminent threat to the health and safety of the community."

Mayor Jeremy Harris' office has yet to get a single call from anyone being laid off, trying to build a home or asking the mayor to intervene, city spokeswoman Carol Costa said yesterday.

Hickox, who is active with the Building Industry Association-Hawai'i, asked BIA officials yesterday what, if anything, they were doing to intervene.

The answer was "nothing," Hickox said.

But the BIA e-mailed a survey last night to its 450 members throughout Hawai'i asking how many employees they planned to lay off and what the strike had cost them in businesses.

"Because I have members that are both union and non-union, I have to respect all of the members of BIA," said Karen Nakamura, the group's top executive.

The strike has directly hit 15 Homeworks Construction projects, which Hickox estimated cost at least $6.5 million to $7 million.

Another 15 to 20 projects worth $5 million have been slowed by the lack of concrete, Hickox said.

With the pace of construction dragging, Homeworks doesn't have the income to keep paying its 45 employees, he said. "In this business, it's all about cash flow."

And while Homeworks is laying off more than a third of its employees, "our mortgages and our rent and our overhead continues," Hickox said. The company also will keep paying laid-off workers' insurance coverage.

The concrete strike means Hickox's own home in Kahalu'u won't be finished by the time his first child is born. He and his wife, Heather, had hoped to move in at least two weeks before the boy's April 8 due date.

Now he doesn't know what to tell his wife, a house painter who has seen her own business fall.

And it's always painful to tell employees such as accounts payable secretary Sara Ladines there won't be work for her after Friday.

Ladines has a 19-month-old girl and 6-month-old boy. She bursts into tears every so often at the office, worried about paying the rent on her 'Ewa Beach apartment.

Hickox believes the layoffs are necessary to keep the company going through the strike. But delivering the news tears at him.

"It makes me sad," he said. "And in the same sense, very angry."

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

Governor sees deal not far off

Gov. Linda Lingle believes the sides in O'ahu's concrete strike are not that far apart.

Lingle's chief of staff, Bob Awana, has met with officials from Ameron Hawaii and Hawaiian Cement, as well as leaders of Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996, the governor said. And she believes her office has a better understanding of the issues than has been made public.

"My impression is that they're not that far apart," Lingle said last night. "And it gives me hope they're going to be able to work it out."

Hawai'i's governor should not get involved in a labor dispute unless it presents "an imminent threat to the health and safety of the community," Lingle said.

But she worries about the jobs being lost because of the 14-day-old strike.

Last night, a major contractor told Lingle business at lunch wagons has fallen and construction workers aren't taking their families out to restaurants.

The strike, Lingle said, "affects everybody."