Lanai cutbacks
affect hundreds

Employers are hopeful that
the island's tourist-dependent
economy will revive

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By Erika Engle
eengle@starbulletin.com

A hefty portion of Lanai's population will be temporarily out of work following a "change of status" for 400 of Castle & Cooke Resort's 1,100 Lanai employees, as the local economy continues to be hammered by a sharp decline in tourism following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The "change of status" includes early vacations, reduced work hours and furloughs. The actual number of layoffs was not divulged. Castle & Cooke employs more than a third of the island's 3,164 residents.

"They've done everything they can to minimize the impact," said spokeswoman Sheila Donnelly-Theroux, so the number of layoffs would be "as few as possible."

The Lodge at Koele golf course has been closed for six weeks of restoration because of light use, she said, which may only affect two employees. The course is expected to reopen at Thanksgiving.

Plans to reseed the golf course due to drought damage and for renovation of the Manele Bay Hotel were announced in July.

Both the Lodge at Koele and the Manele Bay Hotel are open for business, Donnelly-Theroux said. But she would not reveal their occupancy rates.

Lanai's representative to the Maui County Council, Riki Hokama, met with Castle & Cooke owner David Murdock and one of his top executives over the weekend to discuss the situation.

"(Murdock) knows of the responsibility of the company as it is basically the sole employer (on Lanai)," Hokama said.

He said in coming up with the change in status plan the company consulted with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents nonmanagement employees. The union did not return phone calls.

"We got through six-month strikes, Iwa, Iniki and we'll get through this situation," Hokama said.

The employment changes are not expected to have a drastic impact on Lahaina-based Expeditions, which operates a ferry service to Lanai from Lahaina, Maui.

The company is regulated by the state Public Utilities Commission and therefore must apply to the commission before changing its daily schedule of five round trips.

While construction workers building new homes on Lanai still make several trips per week, the company has seen a decrease in passenger count, according to Expeditions President Steve Knight.

The company would normally use a 99-passenger vessel but now runs a 64-passenger, more fuel-efficient vessel which requires fewer crewmembers to operate.

Of the company's 16 employees, 12 are shareholders. "We've all taken, even the officers have taken, a salary cut and our office personnel -- some are also shareholders -- have cut their hours as have the captains and crews," Knight said.

"As of a few days ago we were a couple hundred (passengers) behind the same time last year," Knight said, "which isn't all that great -- but September is notoriously the slowest time of the year."

He sees hopeful signs in reports of people re-booking vacations, and a possible increase in air travel in October. "Out of the mud grows a lotus," Knight said.

Hokama also sounded a positive note.

"Lanai has taken pride in pulling together as a community during hard times. Because we're a small community and a rural community, the ability of residents to supplement their needs through traditional ways of hunting and fishing and growing staples is going to be an asset that helps us through this tough time."

The economy of Lanai is 100 percent based on the visitor industry, he added.

"This definitely reinforces and reenergizes me to continue to push for diversification in the island economy as well as for the county," Hokama said.