ENVIRONMENT

By Gary T. Kubota, Star-Bulletin
A group of native Hawaiians demonstrated at the
Kahului Airport yesterday, protesting recent layoffs.

Kahoolawe cleanup workers
protest 3-week layoff

By Gary T. Kubuta
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- A group of native Hawaiians is protesting a three-week layoff of workers to help clear ordnance on Kahoolawe, saying they believe they have been treated unfairly.

Kalele Logan said he quit his job as a mule skinner on Molokai to work on the cleanup and rented a house on Maui on the day he learned of the layoff.

Logan and about 13 other people stood outside the office of Parsons-UXB at the Kahului Airport to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the layoff from Oct. 19 through Nov. 9.

Parsons-UXB has been awarded a $280 million contract to clear ordnance from the 28,600-acre island which was once used for bombing and military maneuvers by the Navy.

U.S. Navy spokesman Don Rochon said some 20 people who worked for Parsons and Biogenesis Pacific Inc. were laid off temporarily until Navy officials could finish reviewing procedures for ordnance removal.

Rochon said the action did not discriminate against native Hawaiians and that those who were affected by the layoff were workers who cut bushes and trees on the island.

Charles Maxwell, a native Hawaiian cultural specialist, said he and other native Hawaiians were at the forefront of a movement to return Kahoolawe to civilian use.

Maxwell said now that the island has been returned to the state, those getting the jobs seem to be a lot of people from the U.S. mainland.

"The first group they got to lay off is the Hawaiians," he said.

Maxwell asked why the Navy was still reviewing procedures to use in the cleanup, after spending $20 million on a model cleanup of the island.

Rochon said the contract with Parsons-UXB Joint Venture is separate from the model cleanup, and each task order from the joint venture needs to be approved by the Navy.

He said the Navy is reviewing a number of procedures proposed by Parsons-UXB, including emergency procedures for fires and the transportation of explosives.

Rochon said the Navy is applying some of what it learned from the $20 million model cleanup but that the current cleanup of the entire island will be on a much larger scale.

He said the Navy is trying to review the procedures as quickly as possible and may be able to finish the review before Nov. 9.

"We're trying as expeditiously as possible to get these plans approved and get them back to work," he said.