Anti-drug fight transcends workplace in Hana

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

The leaders of Hawai'i's hotel and restaurant union for years have successfully prevented hotel companies from testing employees for drugs — despite management's belief that it would reduce drug use.

Doug Chang, general manager of the Hotel Hana Maui, says that "one of the beauties here is that family is a critical, critical element of the community, much stronger than you'll find elsewhere." Advertiser library photo • July 30, 2002

In Hana, the union is working closely with management to address the drug problem in a new way.

"We want a program where workers with a drug problem can get appropriate help and workers who don't have a drug problem aren't targeted and clog up the system and have their rights abridged," said Eric Gill, Local 5's financial secretary-treasurer. "We're trying to develop a model for that and we're working on it in Hana."

The 1994 and 1997 National Household Survey of Drug Use revealed what Gill calls a "disturbing trend" of increased heavy alcohol and illicit drug use among food-preparation workers, waiters, waitresses and bartenders — while other occupations showed decreases.

Restaurant workers had the highest rate of substance abuse of any occupation: 18.7 percent reported at least one incidence of illicit drug use in the past month and 15 percent reported five or more drinks on five or more occasions in the past month in a 1997 survey.

Hotels and other unionized businesses in Hawai'i generally test job candidates before they're hired. But they've made little progress in getting unions to agree to unannounced tests of existing employees.

"Once they're hired, we're not allowed to," said Keith Vieira, senior vice president and director of operations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Hawai'i and French Polynesia.

"Basically management feels most importantly — and first of all for the safety of our employees and to the same extent for our guests — that some form of drug testing would make it a more safer, viable workplace," Vieira said. "Many of our employees have told us the same thing."

In busy hotels filled with kitchens, equipment and guests mingling with workers, Vieira said, the issue of unannounced drug tests comes up repeatedly at contract time.

"It is obviously a sensitive subject," he said. "We respect that there are two sides to every story. We respect that there is another viewpoint. But since safety is such a key issue, we think it is important to have drug testing and we will continue to pursue it."

Local 5 has several objections to drug testing, Gill said, "ranging from maintaining personal privacy to our bigger concern of not wanting to put this particular weapon in the hands of management and give them a way to exercise additional powers over workers and intimidate them."

Gill also worries that workers who may have smoked marijuana once up to 30 days before a drug test would be treated the same as a habitual "ice" user, who will test positive up to 72 hours before a drug screen.

"The least harmful drug stays in your system the longest," Gill said. "So more people will be found with pakalolo in their blood and will be mandated by various drug-testing polices to get treatment. The result will be a lot of people in treatment who aren't addicts and don't have a problem and are just taking up space for people who do have a problem and could get help from a program."

In Hana, Local 5 has taken a more conciliatory approach.

The union still won't budge on the issue of unannounced drug tests. But both management and union leaders sat down 18 months ago and formed a joint committee to tackle issues at the hotel — and now want to focus on the bigger problem of drugs in Hana.

Gill and Doug Chang, general manager of the Hotel Hana Maui, believe that Hana's close-knit community of 2,000 people and their strong link to the 270-person hotel mean union and management leaders together might have a better chance of getting substance abuse treatment for workers and their extended families.

"The hotel is the community and the community is the hotel," Chang said. "The lines between them are very blurred. Being in a small community, there are very little secrets. Everybody is related. Everybody travels in the same circles. If there's a problem inside the hotel and outside the hotel, it's all the same."

The management-labor committee plans to apply for a grant through the federal mediation service of about $50,000 to set up programs that would extend medical benefits to family members of hotel workers who currently don't qualify.

"I might be a (drug-free) hotel worker with an unemployed, 25-year-old son who's screwed up on ice," Gill said. The son would not be eligible for substance abuse treatment because they're not a dependent. "But in Hana, you have three or four generations living in the same house because housing's so tight. If you get one guy in the house screwing up, then the whole house is screwed up."

Gill and Chang also hope to train respected management and union leaders in peer intervention to encourage people — inside the hotel and in the community — to seek treatment.

"We're calling it an auntie intervention group, because of the close family ties and close community ties in Hana," Gill said.

Chang also hopes that the grant might be used to cover extended family members who don't even live in the same house as a hotel worker.

Chang, who was born and raised on O'ahu and spent 20 years in Hanalei on Kau'ai, said, "one of the beauties here, is that family is a critical, critical element of the community, much stronger than you'll find elsewhere. Employees often work alongside their aunties and uncles. And if you're not coming to work, that means Auntie has to work harder. On more than one occasion, I've heard people say, 'Don't do that to Auntie, don't do that to Uncle' in relation to the workplace issues."

Nani Smith, a 46-year-old Hotel Hana Maui housekeeper who was born and raised in Hana, has seen drugs and alcohol take hold of co-workers and people in the community. She has high hopes for the collaborative effort by union and management leaders to get help for the people of Hana.

"We spend more time at work than we do at home so it's important that we put our finger on the problem and not let it destroy our people," Smith said. "I love my town. I love my home. We can't let this drug problem interfere with people's growth, their health and what they envision themselves to be."

This month, Chang had to deal with a hotel employee with a suspected substance abuse problem. And he believes that both Local 5 and the hotel share the same goal to get treatment for addicted employees — and eventually get them back to work.

"The union has been very supportive of trying to wok with management to address issues in a rehabilitative way, not in a punitive way," Chang said. "For Hana, if you let an employee go, you haven't solved the problem. Now you're just down an employee in a very tight labor pool."

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