Seventy positions already are vacant
due to a hiring freeze last year

By Peter Wagner
Star-Bulletin

Queen's Medical Center has put 160 jobs on the chopping block, part of a three-year initiative to offset dwindling state and federal health care reimbursements.

"With the declining reimbursement climate facing hospitals and other providers nationally and locally, health care organizations are clearly being challenged in holding down costs and maintaining quality," said Arthur Ushijima, president and chief operating officer at Queen's.

Yesterday's statement by Queen's was the latest blow to Hawaii's workers, who recently have seen some of the state's best-known employers announce similar moves.

Last month, Bank of Hawaii's parent company said it was cutting 550 jobs through attrition and layoffs over the next two years; Liberty House laid off 162 employees and said it had recently dropped another 318 jobs through attrition; and the City & County of Honolulu announced plans for 335 job cuts, including 185 layoffs. Hospital officials said its cost-cutting effort, started in 1996, aims at reducing expenses by $18 million this fiscal year.

In a statement released yesterday, the hospital said it has targeted 160 positions for elimination, 70 of them vacant because of a hiring freeze last year. About 50 positions were later trimmed after employees accepted early retirement options, the hospital said.

But among the remaining cuts are 20 part-time housekeeping jobs, a matter of rising concern at the Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers union.

The union, which represents about 650 housekeepers, maintenance workers, food handlers, telecommunications workers, psychiatric assistants and laundry workers at Queen's, yesterday accused the hospital of violating its three-month-old contract by replacing union workers with nonunion "call-ins."

Teamster representative Ron Kozuma threatened to file a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board. "We will be filing a grievance and take whatever necessary steps if this layoff does occur," he said.

The union in December threatened to strike after negotiations broke down over a new three-year contract. Queen's, seeking temporary replacements, drew 1,200 applicants for the jobs.

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Amfac furloughs
413 on Kauai

The sugar workers union's
rejection of a 10 percent pay cut
results in furloughs

By Trish Moore
Star-Bulletin

LIHUE -- The bulk of Kauai sugar workers at Amfac/JMB Hawaii will sit idle for at least two weeks while the company debates its future on the island.

In the wake of the sugar workers union rejecting a new contract agreement that included a 10 percent cut in pay, the company yesterday announced an immediate furlough of 413 of its 453 workers on the island.

"Amfac management had said previously that if Imua was turned down, it would lead to furloughs, so this should not be a surprise to anyone," said Amfac spokesman Jim Boersema.

Imua was a management plan hammered out last fall by company officials, union representatives and rank-and-file workers. The aim of the plan was to keep the industry viable in the long run.

Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka said the furloughs will have a domino effect on the island's economy, which in recent years has lagged behind the rest of the state.

She suggested support for the Imua plan "at a time when alternatives on Kauai are few and far between."

"Until we can enjoy a healthier economy, we continue to make sacrifices and reorganize operational structures to weather this challenging period," Kusaka said.

In her remarks on a public access television show that airs Friday, Kusaka also hinted of layoffs of county employees if county revenues from the state-allocated hotel tax declines.

Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 rejected the plan by a 3-to-1 margin.

Union representatives could not be reached for comment.

A worker at the Kekaha plant who did not want to be identified said workers didn't want to give up the 10 percent pay cut and have to work up to 60 hours a week without overtime. Most workers who voted in favor of the plan had home mortgages, the worker said.

Amfac operations on Kauai and Maui have lost money five of the last six years.

Amfac has a contract to supply Kauai Electric with electricity from its Lihue plant and hasn't given the required three-year notice that it is quitting production, according to the utility.

Boersema said he didn't know what the contractual obligations are if a company declares bankruptcy.

Although the plantation last year supplied 11 percent of the island's electricity, the power company said it has enough excess supply to meet the island's energy needs without Amfac.

The furloughs were announced for an indefinite amount of time, but the company will decide what to do within the next two weeks, Boersema said.