GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Hilton Hawaiian Village housekeepers Adoracion Francisco, left, and Filomena Yamut said there was mold in Hilton's Kalia Tower months ago. The two spoke yesterday at a press conference by Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 5.

Union wants
answers about mold

Local 5 opposes a new tower until
Hilton finds out what went wrong
with the Kalia Tower

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By Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.com

Faced with unanswered questions about the Hilton Hawaiian Village mold problem and its effect on hotel workers, union leader Eric Gill went on the offensive yesterday, saying that Hilton shouldn't build a new time-share tower in Waikiki until it figures out what went wrong with the Kalia Tower.

The City Council's Zoning Committee meets this morning to review permits for Hilton's proposed 350-unit Waikikian Tower, to be located on the Diamond Head side of the Ilikai. Gill, financial secretary-treasurer of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 5, said the union will again speak out against the project.

Local 5 members criticized the proposed $80 million development at a hearing in late June, raising concerns about the impact on traffic and parking. This time, Local 5 plans to hammer Hilton on an issue that stands to be far more timely and severe: mold.

The union is also in the midst of negotiation a new contract with Hilton and other Waikiki hotels.

Last week, Hilton disclosed that it had discovered mold in a room in its newly built Kalia Tower on June 7, then subsequently found mold in more rooms and ultimately decided to close all 453 rooms in the tower for further inspection.

But several union housekeepers working in the Kalia Tower have told Local 5 that they came across mold several months ago, in March. The workers told their managers about the mold, and were told to clean it up using regular housekeeping techniques.

"The mold came back," said Adoracion Francisco, a union organizer and 20-year housekeeper who heard about reports of the mold from fellow workers. Her co-workers also reported that they were having symptoms such as sore throats, itchiness, wheezing, bronchitis and pneumonia. Francisco noted that none of the workers came forward until Hilton went public about the mold last week.

Francisco spoke at a press conference yesterday by Local 5 at Hilton Hawaiian Village. Another Hilton employee, Filomena Yamut, said she began having headaches, sinus problems and other symptoms three months ago, though she doesn't know the cause. She works at different towers at Hilton Hawaiian Village, and only works in Kalia Tower about once a month. Yamut said she only saw mold once, last Saturday.

"We don't claim to have an exhaustive review," Gill said. The union has given Hilton until tomorrow to come up with more information about the mold and its potential effects on workers.

Last week, when the Star-Bulletin asked Hilton executive Peter Schall if the hotel had attempted to clean the mold, he said he didn't know.

In response to Local 5's press conference, Schall yesterday issued a statement acknowledging that the hotel attempted to clean the mold found in Kalia guest rooms, though the statement didn't specify when.

"When that didn't work we hired the best experts in this field to investigate and evaluate the situation and provide their expert guidance. They measured various levels in affected rooms and based on those measurements we decided to take those rooms out of service," said Schall, who is senior vice president and managing director of Hilton Hawaiian Village.

"Ultimately, as you know, we made the decision to remove all guest rooms from service in the Kalia Tower. The safety and comfort of our employees and guests is paramount."

On Friday, Hilton announced that it had identified potentially unsafe Eurotium mold in the Kalia Tower, as well as Cladosporium mold in corridors at the 264-room Lagoon Tower, which recently reopened as a time-share project.

Experts from Atlanta firm Air Quality Sciences Inc. are still investigating the mold, and are trying to find the root cause of the high humidity in the Kalia Tower, which opened in May 2001.

Meanwhile, Utah health consultant Joseph Jarvis could arrive as early as today to begin examining Hilton employees.