Pacific Beach Hotel employees voted 180-179 to be represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142, according to a final count yesterday.

The single-vote difference appears to mark the end of a process that began three years ago to organize the hotel's nearly 500 employees.

"Even if the union won by one vote, we still have a split house," said Robert "Mick" Minicola, regional general manager for HTH Corp., which owns and operates the Pacific Beach Hotel. "For me, it's hard to feel good because half of the people are going to be happy, and half won't be.

"At this point, there's options to be explored to see what happens next. I'm not sure exactly what all those options are. I still have to meet with my owners and executive team about what is the next plan from here."

Wesley Furtado, ILWU international vice president for Hawai'i, noted that not all eligible voters participated in the election, and that the actual support for the union could be stronger than the vote indicates.

"Hopefully we can both work together and move forward," Furtado said "We've been through two elections already, we need to put everything behind us and try to reach an agreement. ... We just want to move forward for the workers' sake. They've been through it so many times. And from this point I believe they deserve a fair chance at the bargaining table."

Minicola said HTH just finalized a new three-year contract with the ILWU in June for employees at its King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel, "so it's not as though it's new for us to negotiate with ILWU."

Yesterday's results are from a second election among hotel employees, said Peter Ohr, National Labor Relations Board field attorney. The union lost by a handful of votes in the first election in 2002, but a new election was ordered after the union filed objections to the conduct of the election.

The second election was held last year, with the union winning by a 179-174 vote. But a dozen ballots were not opened because of disputes over the eligibility of the voters who cast them. Ultimately, the NLRB in Washington, D.C., ordered six of the challenged ballots to be counted.

Of the six ballots — which were challenged by the union — five were for the company and one was in favor of the union, bringing the final count to 180-179, Ohr said.

Normally when ballots are tallied, there's a one-week period to allow for objections before the results are certified, Ohr said. But both parties already went through the objection period, he said.

"The union is going to be certified as the collective-bargaining representative, which means there is a legal obligation by the employer to recognize and negotiate with the union on behalf of the employees for terms and conditions," Ohr said. "So what happens from here on, it's a whole new volume."