Pacific Beach, union at odds over changes
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With just two weeks to go before HTH Corp. resumes management of the Pacific Beach Hotel, the company and its workers are still at odds.
While the Pacific Beach Hotel is currently managed by PBH Management, an affiliate of Outrigger Enterprise Group, hotel owner HTH Corp. is slated to end its contract with the company Dec. 1. All hotel employees were told they were being laid off and must reapply for their jobs.
HTH Corp. said that it plans to rehire about 90 percent of its managers and workers, but ILWU Local 142 contends that the owner has handled the transition poorly. It has filed additional charges with the National Labor Relations Board. Meanwhile, HTH Corp. has filed its own set of NLRB charges.
The union also says that it will expand its local consumer boycott nationally if labor concerns are not addressed by HTH Corp.'s start date.
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The ILWU Local 142, the union that represents hotel workers at the Pacific Beach Hotel in Waikiki, has filed additional National Labor Relations Board charges against the owner and property manager, and has said that it plans to launch a national consumer boycott of the property if tensions are not resolved by next month.
"We have been running a local consumer boycott, but we plan to expand it nationally on Dec. 1 unless issues between the hotel owners, managers and workers are resolved," said Dave Mori, ILWU spokesman.
While the Pacific Beach Hotel is currently managed by PBH Management, an affiliate of Outrigger Enterprise Group, owner HTH Corp. is slated to end its contract with PBH Dec. 1 and take back management of the property.
Tensions have run high since HTH Corp. notified workers earlier this year that all employees would be laid off and have to reapply for their jobs as a result of the change. Workers at the property's Shogun restaurant also were informed that the eatery would close Nov. 30, leaving them jobless.
Although Pacific Beach's management changeover is scheduled to take place in two weeks, many questions remain, Mori said.
HTH Corp. said it is still making transition-related decisions.
"We plan to hire approximately 90 percent of the managers and 90 percent of the employees, but the hiring process is not finished, and we continue to look at the business forecast for December and into 2008," said Robert Minicola, regional vice president of operations for HTH Corp.
Still, many workers don't know where they stand, Mori said.
The ILWU has asked the NLRB to hear charges that hotel property owners and managers have refused to bargain in good faith and have undermined the process, he said. There are also several charges related to HTH Corp.'s decision to make all workers reapply for their jobs during the management transition, Mori said.
"The 10 percent of workers who haven't been offered jobs are primarily union supporters," Mori said, adding that the union is still trying to negotiate adequate separation for workers whose jobs have been eliminated in the changeover.
Minicola said that Pacific Beach Corp., the division of HTH Corp. that will run Pacific Beach Hotel, has filed its own NLRB charges against the union.
Mori said that other employees are dissatisfied because they have been offered work at greatly reduced wages.
However, HTH Corp. contends that only three workers, whose positions have been eliminated in the company's transition, were offered different jobs that paid less.