Healthcare proposal sets back concrete talks
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Efforts to resolve O'ahu's 35-day-old concrete strike suffered another setback yesterday when striking Teamsters said they will meet only when Ameron Hawaii removes its proposal to raise employees' share of their medical coverage.
The latest development threatens to indefinitely extend the strike that has crippled construction projects on O'ahu. At the same time, the number of people filing for unemployment benefits continues to steadily rise — from an average of 850 new claims per week to 1,004 at the end of last week.
The 212 striking concrete workers are not receiving unemployment benefits while they await a ruling by the state Department of Labor on their eligibility.
Federal Mediator Ken Kawamoto told Ameron Hawaii officials yesterday afternoon that the Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Union Local 996 had imposed a new condition for today's scheduled contract negotiations: The union would meet only if Ameron removes its proposal to increase employees' share of their medical payments from 20 percent to 30 percent.
Teamsters President Mel Kahele and other Teamsters officials did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.
"We got the rug pulled out from our collective feet," said George West, Ameron Hawaii's vice president of operations for O'ahu. "They will not meet with us for further talks unless we agree to take our healthcare proposal off the table. Period. That's unreasonable. We should both be able to bring our issues to the table. We are not imposing any condition to the talks."
West said Ameron officials have always been willing to negotiate.
The "meeting has been canceled," West said. "Mel has canceled it. The union has canceled it. I don't see it being rescheduled. We need to think of ways to convince him that this has to be discussed."
No new talks have been scheduled between the Teamsters and Hawai'i's other major concrete company, Hawaiian Cement, since talks ended Tuesday night.
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
