KALAELOA — Negotiators for Hawaiian Cement and the Hawaii Teamsters Allied Workers, Local 996, were expected to be meeting into the early morning hours today in an effort to reach a contract agreement and avoid a strike set to start after midnight.

The two sides began talks with a federal mediator about 7 p.m. at Hawaiian Cement's Campbell Industrial Park office, marking the first time since Friday that union officials and management met. Negotiations were scheduled to begin at 5:30, but union leader Mel Kahele arrived at about 6 and met with union workers for about an hour before entering the office for negotiations.

At about 9:15 Kahele said he expected the talks to last all night, but declined to comment further.

Mike Coad, Hawaiian Cement vice president and lead negotiator, declined to comment last night before negotiations began. At that time, Kahele said he hoped to avoid a strike but acknowledged it may be difficult to beat the clock.

"This is the 12th meeting and we're still where we first started. We're far apart," Kahele said.

If a settlement is not reached, Kahele said, 20 workers will walk off their jobs at Hawaiian Cement's loading and unloading operations on O'ahu, Kaua'i, Maui and the Big Island.

A strike could choke the only source of cement needed to make concrete throughout the Islands and potentially devastate the state's booming construction industry.

Coad said last week the company has a contingency plan should a strike occur, but he declined to provide details. Kahele said he doubted that the company could succeed in continuing to operate in the event of a strike.

"I don't know how they'll be able to do it without the dock workers," Kahele said.

The negotiations focus on only Hawaiian Cement electricians, terminal operators, pack-house utility workers, heavy equipment operators, terminal laborers and pack-house laborers.

But Hawaiian Cement is the only company that imports cement to the Islands and supplies other companies that turn it into concrete, including Ameron Hawaii, Jas. Glover and West Hawaii Concrete.

Salaries for the workers range from pack-house laborers and terminal laborers who make $23.34 an hour — regardless of years of experience — to a single electrician on O'ahu who makes $28.99 an hour, according to the company.

Nearly half of the workers — terminal operators on all islands — earn $28.86 hourly regardless of experience.

With overtime, according to Hawaiian Cement, 2005 salaries ranged from $70,559 to $101,470. The average was $86,092, including overtime.

Employees also have lifetime medical benefits upon retirement.

Coad submitted a "last, best and final offer" to the union on Friday, the 11th meeting in the ongoing negotiations.

The proposed five-year contract called for a $1 per hour raise in the first year of the contract and additional increases of 80 cents per hour in each subsequent year.

But the proposal also would require employees to pay a 20 percent co-pay toward their medical premiums as do Hawaiian Cement's other employee groups and non-union employees, Coad said.

Kahele responded to the company's "last, best and final offer" with a 72-hour strike notice, saying he could not support a proposal to require employees to pay into their medical benefits. Even with the proposed raises, he said, the new co-pay requirement would cost employees about $224 per month.

Hawaiian Cement currently pays 100 percent of the employees' medical coverage, which runs from $320.30 per month for single coverage to $929.72 per month for family coverage.

Under the company's proposal, employees who want single coverage would pay $64.06 per month. Those with family coverage would pay $185.94.

Combining the proposed raises and a pre-tax option on the medical co-payments would mean that employees would have no net loss of income, Coad said.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com and Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.