Strike possible
at hotels

Hotel workers could take a
strike vote tomorrow if no
agreement is reached today

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By Leila Fujimori
Star-Bulletin

NEGOTIATIONS were scheduled to resume this afternoon to try to avert a Waikiki hotel workers strike that could disrupt operations at Hawaii's biggest hotels while international attention is focused on the state during the Asian Development Bank conference.

No negotiations were scheduled yesterday after talks with a federal mediator that started Friday afternoon broke off at 2 in the morning.

"There was some progress made, but we're still a ways apart," said chief negotiator Sherri Chiesa, trustee for Local 5 of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees, AFL-CIO, yesterday. "Both sides are committed to going back tomorrow (Sunday) and trying one more time."

Local 5 presented the employers with a proposal Friday night.

"The ball is in their court to give us a response," Chiesa said.

If no settlement is reached by today, employees will not show up for work at 10 a.m. tomorrow to take a strike vote, Chiesa said. The union had originally scheduled a stop-work day tomorrow, but members will show up to work if an agreement is reached. A strike could begin as early as Tuesday.

"There's no reason to disrupt work if there's a settlement," Chiesa said yesterday. "I'm worried that we're not negotiating until tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon.

"If there is a settlement, and it comes late, we have 5,000 members to notify. There may be some disruption just because of the timing."

Nearly 5,000 Local 5 members have been working under an extended contract for more than a year since the last one expired March 1, 2000.

That master contract covers workers at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, the Hyatt Regency Waikiki and the Sheraton hotels.

Tourist Richard Mikami of Los Angeles, who is staying at the Hilton, was nonchalant about the possibility of a strike disrupting his vacation.

"What could happen other than you have to make your own bed, and we do that at home anyway," he said.

About 6,000 more Local 5 members are employed at hotels that negotiate their own agreements, which are due to expire throughout the next few months.

Union officials say a major issue is the subcontracting of work to nonunion workers. Negotiators say they also asked for a 5 percent wage increase through the length of a three-year contract, but that management has not made an acceptable response.

At the Hilton last night, Local 5 member Tracie Flores, who works for a subcontractor which cleans public areas of the hotel, said she hasn't decided whether she should strike because while she's a union member, she has heard one of the union demands is no subcontractors.