UNITE HERE Local 5, Hawai'i's largest hotel worker union, reached a settlement this week with the National Labor Relations Board following allegations the union engaged in unfair labor practices by forcing non-union workers to pay for activities unrelated to collective bargaining.

Grant Suzuki, a Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa electrician who resigned his union membership in 2004, objected to paying dues and fees for nonrepresentational activities and filed a complaint with the labor board in March last year.

The Springfield, Va.-based National Right to Work Foundation, which provided Suzuki free legal assistance, said the union violated Suzuki's rights by requiring him and other similarly situated nonmembers to pay into strike funds that could be spent in strikes in industries such as healthcare and entertainment, and in places including Guam and Saipan.

Under the settlement, Suzuki's strike fund payments will be put in a separate fund earmarked just for hotel bargaining units in Hawai'i, "which really is where we would use it anyway," said Local 5 spokeswoman Michelle Andrews.

"It has not really amounted to much of a change," Andrews said of the settlement.

Suzuki said that "although we pretty much won what the complaint was about," he plans to appeal the settlement to end the collection of all forced strike fund dues. He said he resigned his union membership because he disagreed with the organization's leadership and will not strike.

"We feel that we shouldn't be paying that fee at all, completely," said Suzuki, who has worked at Hilton for 15 years. "It makes no sense to be paying into a fund that we never will collect on."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.