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Local 5 inks
its first Guam
union contract

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Star-Bulletin staff

Employees of a Guam tour bus company have ratified a three-year labor contract negotiated by Hawaii Local 5 of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees union.

The pact covers 110 workers at Lam Lam Tours & Transportation Inc.

The new contract, which covers all employees of the Japanese-owned tourism business, provides a 30 cents-an-hour wage increase for each year, a one-time signing bonus, plus other pay which brought the total increase to 12 percent, said lead negotiator Morrison Luka.

Premiums will be paid to mechanics, electrical mechanics and shop workers who achieve licensing or certification in their trades. Drivers and tour guides may now bid for assignments under a newly created seniority system. Other basic benefits such as sick leave, and a grievance procedure, were established.

Luka said "the employer took a lot of heat from the business community in Guam but he was gracious about establishing working conditions that his employees sought."

The employees voted in a union certification election last September.

"This contract was a breakthrough in the private sector in Guam," Luka said. "It will be the baseline to any other organizing to go on there."