[ OUR OPINION ]
Economic times call
for hotel settlementHOTEL management and employees have prepared for a possible strike in recent days, but a walkout would be harmful for both sides. The hotels still are recovering from the low visitor rates in the past year of an economy shaken by terrorism. Labor leaders trying to reach an agreement for hotel workers should not be distracted by catcalls from former leaders of the union.
THE ISSUE Management and union negotiators at five major hotels are continuing talks aimed at a new multi-year labor contract.
Both management and labor should be motivated by the current economic uncertainty to avoid a strike. As a Star-Bulletin and KITV 4 poll indicates, only one in eight Hawaii residents believe the state's economy is getting any better. Under these circumstances, a hotel workers strike would serve no one's interest.
Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union represents 4,000 housekeepers, restaurant workers, bellhops and other blue-collar workers -- many of them new immigrants -- at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and four Sheraton hotels in Waikiki. Despite decades of internal strife, the union has been able to obtain benefits and wages -- in the $13-an-hour range for workers who don't receive tips and more than $6 for those who do -- that have kept up with members' living costs. The size of wage hikes is at the heart of negotiations with the hotels included in the master contract.
Three weeks ago, employees covered under the contract voted by a 5-to-1 ratio in favor of authorizing their leadership to call a strike in order to reach an agreement. Such strike authorization votes are a customary practice aimed at giving union negotiators utmost leverage in contract talks. They rarely result in actual strikes.
Tony Rutledge was Local 5's leader for 14 years before being unseated by longtime rival Eric Gill in a union election two years ago. He has accused Gill of obtaining the strike authorization prematurely and generally lacking the expertise that Rutledge can claim under the tutelage of his father, legendary Teamsters and Local 5 leader Arthur Rutledge. Those are legitimate comments to be made publicly during a union election campaign but not during fragile contract talks.
Rutledge and allies also filed a federal lawsuit last week against the union's international organization for its decision to take no action against the Gill faction following the 2000 union election. In a complaint to the parent union, the Rutledge camp had accused Gill and others of engaging in unethical, antidemocratic and improper financial practices.
Such allegations have been leveled between different factions of the Rutledge-associated unions for more years than most labor officials in Hawaii can remember. Solidarity is not a Local 5 trademark, but its members have not been greatly damaged. A contract settlement, without a strike, would best preserve the union's record.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
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