Isle tugboat strike Tugboat operators across the state are threatening to walk off the job Sunday if there is no agreement on a new contract. The potential strike could cripple retailers on Lanai and Molokai and seriously hurt businesses on other islands.
might come Sunday
A potential walkout at
Young Brothers could
cripple Molokai and LanaiBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.comTugboat workers at Young Brothers Ltd. and Hawaiian Tug and Barge authorized a strike in a vote yesterday. The 59 workers are represented by the Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific. The contract expires at midnight Saturday.
Hawaiian Tug and Barge and Young Brothers issued a news release yesterday afternoon saying negotiations were continuing.
"These employees are vital to our business and are valued," said Mark Cohen, Hawaiian Tug and Barge's vice president of maritime operations. "We are doing what we can to reach a settlement."
Union representative Jonathan Lonokani said he could not comment on the status of negotiations.
Because Young Brothers is the only cargo service licensed by the Public Utilities Commission to ship cargo from one island to another, businesses have no other affordable choice when shipping goods from Honolulu.
Businesses on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island would still be able to receive Matson containers originating from the mainland, but businesses on Lanai and Molokai have no such alternative.
Jeff Egusa, president of Friendly Market Center Ltd. on Molokai, said he is dependent on shipments from Young Brothers. "I'll be dead without them," he said.
While Egusa has some perishable items flown in -- bread, some vegetables and some poi -- most of his goods come off Young Brothers barges.
"I could survive maybe four days for the perishable kind of stuff, vegetables, meat, milk," he said. "If they went on strike Sunday, I'll be out by Tuesday."
If union workers honor the picket lines, the strike could affect all ships that use tug boats to come into and out of Honolulu and other harbors, said Kimo Pierson, general manager of Waldron Steamship Co. Tug boat operators at Sause Brothers Ocean Towing Co. are represented by the same union, but their contract does not expire until 2003.
"It will cost of lot of money to have ships just sit here or have ships not be able to come into the harbor," he said. "It could be quite devastating."
In May the union's national president, David Freiboth, gave a speech encouraging the union to stand behind their Hawaii members. According to his speech, one goal of the negotiations is parity with the longshore workers in pay and benefits. The longshore workers employed by Young Brothers are represented by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union.
"We know that tug and longshore workers are part of a team, and there's no good reason why one part of the team is not compensated to the level of the other," Freiboth said.
Mike McKenna, who uses Young Brothers to tow 30 to 35 cars a month from Oahu to the Big Island, said he is not worried about a strike yet.
"I don't think they're going to do it," he said.
So far, he said he has not been contacted by anyone at Young Brothers about a potential strike.
"It sounds like if they went on strike, it would be a potential problem," McKenna said, noting that he could probably hold out if the strike was less than two weeks. After that, "It would cost us a ton of money because we wouldn't have any inventory.
"We have a three-month supply, and after that we'd be in deep kim chee," he said.
Larry Vogel, president of Honolulu food wholesaler Y. Hata & Co., said any strike lasting longer than a few days would be serious for his company. "We're sending goods to the neighbor islands on a constant basis," he said. "Our customers need their goods regularly."
If the tugboat workers went on strike, Y. Hata would have no other shipping option.
"Flying is just not practical. It's just too expensive unless it's an emergency and in small quantities," Vogel said. "If you're talking container loads, you're talking impracticality."