Posted on: Saturday, October 30, 2004

S.F. workers picket Starwood hotels here

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Twenty locked-out San Francisco hotel workers set up picket lines around the Sheraton Waikiki and Royal Hawaiian Hotel yesterday after the hotels' management sent non-union workers to San Francisco.

"If Starwood is going to send people from Hawai'i to help lock out workers, then it should be no surprise that that dispute is going to follow them back to Hawai'i," said Jason Ward, spokesman for Local 5 of the hotel and restaurant union, UNITE-HERE.

Some 30 percent of the hotels' unionized workers did not show up for work yesterday, said David Uchiyama, a spokesman for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which operates the two hotels. The union says it represents 1,000 employees at Starwood's Sheraton Waikiki and another 400 at its Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Uchiyama said he had no estimates.

Gov. Linda Lingle attended a lunch with firefighters yesterday at the Sheraton Waikiki, where San Francisco workers used bullhorns outside throughout the day.

"We're here to deliver a message," said Mike Casey, president of Local 2 of UNITE-HERE. "These guys have locked us out in San Francisco and written off the business in San Francisco and that's fine. But they have to know that there are going to be consequences to their business elsewhere."

Starwood operates the Sheraton Waikiki, Royal Hawaiian, Sheraton Moana Surfrider and Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Hotel for owner Kyo-Ya Co. The Moana Surfrider and Princes Kaiulani were unaffected by yesterday's picket lines, Uchiyama said.

At the Sheraton Waikiki and Royal Hawaiian, Uchiyama said, "there are some effects for the customers. We are not able to offer room service at this point. But for the most part, it's gone pretty much unnoticed."

The San Francisco workers planned to return home today.

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