Kauai sugar LIHUE >> Most of the 275 Gay & Robinson employees who expected to begin Kauai's annual sugar harvest on Monday were told yesterday they will not be needed, at least for a while.
workers put on hold
A dispute between Gay & Robinson
and Amfac delays the harvest
set for MondayAmfac to sell Kauai sugar mills
By Anthony Sommer
Star-BulletinAlan Kennett, Gay & Robinson president and general manager, said late yesterday an impasse in negotiations with Amfac/JMB, which shut down its two plantations on Kauai in November, has led to the delay in starting the harvest.
The workers have been placed in a "no work available" status rather than being furloughed, and will begin working once agreements are reached with Amfac, Kennett said. He did not give the exact number of employees affected.
Some "essential workers" will report on Monday, including some who are needed to plant seed that will rot if it remains in storage, Kennett said.
Kennett refused to give specifics about the negotiations, but it appears one dispute involves the use of the warehouse where sugar awaiting transport to the mainland is stored. The warehouse belongs to Amfac, and its costs were shared with Gay & Robinson prior to November. This year, however, Gay & Robinson will be the only company sending sugar to the warehouse.
Amfac spokesman Jim Boersema said he was told yesterday that negotiations concerning the warehouse are continuing.
Kennett said Gay & Robinson is taking the position that once the raw sugar leaves the plant, it becomes property of the Hawaii Sugar & Transportation Cooperative. The cooperative is the entity that has the contract with C&H sugar in California to refine the raw sugar.
The three companies that make up the cooperative are Gay & Robinson and Hawaii Commercial & Sugar Co. on Maui, the two surviving sugar companies in the state, and Amfac/JMB.
"Amfac wants to negotiate directly with Gay & Robinson, and it is our position they have to negotiate with HS&TC," Kennett said.
Also in limbo are talks between Gay & Robinson and Amfac/JMB over contracts under which Gay & Robinson has provided bagasse to Amfac/JMB's Lihue Plantation for the past 15 years, Kennett said.
The bagasse -- the sawdustlike fiber remaining after the juices have been removed from the cane -- has been burned to fuel equipment that has provided about 14 percent of Kauai Electric Co.'s power supply.
Under a new agreement between Amfac/JMB and Kauai Electric, the Lihue Plantation's generating equipment will be shifted to a standby power supply rather than a primary electric facility.
Not directly involved in the harvest delay, but still being negotiated between the two companies, are two issues involving the Gay & Robinson takeover of state lands formerly leased by Amfac/JMB's Kekaha Sugar Co.
Kennett said Gay & Robinson is seeking the Kekaha mill's garage to use as a maintenance facility for its equipment being used near Kekaha. And Gay & Robinson wants to acquire some specially designed cane trucks used by Amfac/JMB to harvest the steep hills mauka of the mill.