Hilton reaches deal About 4,000 workers at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Sheraton-operated hotels in Waikiki start this week with the promise of increased pay and job security.
4,000 Hilton and Sheraton hotel
workers have a tentative 4-year dealBy Genevieve A. Suzuki and Rosemarie Bernardo
gsuzuki@starbulletin.com
rbernardo@starbulletin.comThe union that represents them announced a tentative four-year contract settlement with Hilton yesterday afternoon, about 17 hours after announcing a similar agreement with Sheraton.
No date has been set for a ratification vote by the union membership.
"We pretty much hit the bull's-eye," said Eric Gill, financial secretary-treasurer of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 5. "Where we hoped to end up is where we ended up. We achieved our basic priorities, and our basic interests have been addressed."
Valet Pavarage Huddle of the Hilton said: "I'm just happy that it all worked out. We don't know what they're going to do."
Huddle, who has worked at the Hilton for a year and a half, said the tentative agreement has eased the minds of many employees.
"We need to pay bills," he said.
Hilton spokeswoman Karen Winpenny said, "We are very pleased that we have reached a tentative agreement with the Local 5."
Negotiators for Local 5 and Hilton went back to the bargaining table about 2:30 yesterday afternoon and reached an agreement by 4 p.m.
Starwood Hotels, Sheraton's parent company, and Local 5 reached agreement about 11 p.m. Saturday night.
Starwood's Keith Vieira called the agreement "amicable for both sides."
After announcing the agreement with Sheraton Saturday night, Gill said, "They'll be paid hotel wages, not plantation wages."
The tentative contracts would be retroactive to June 1, meaning that if they ratify them, workers would receive back pay. Workers covered include those at the Hilton, Sheraton-Moana Surfrider, Sheraton-Waikiki and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
Sheraton-Moana Surfrider valet James Manarpaac said he is relieved that the hotel and the union have reached an agreement.
"What I didn't like was how (union representatives) kept crying wolf," Manarpaac said.
Surfrider employees were told at least twice to clean out their lockers, according to 22-year-old Manarpaac.
"Uncertainty is not a good thing. Everybody's got lives," said Manarpaac, who has been a valet for more than two years.
"Our department just really wanted to know, are we going on strike or aren't we going on strike?" Manarpaac said.
Valets fall into the tipped-worker category. They would receive a wage increase of 45 cents an hour over the length of the contract.
Under the new contract, a starting valet would make $6.33 an hour this year, $6.43 an hour next year, $6.53 an hour in 2004 and $6.68 an hour in 2005, said Jason Ward, research analyst for Local 5.
Housekeepers are nontipped workers and make $12.77 to $13.91 an hour, depending on their individual job duties. The new contract would give them $1.60 more per hour by 2005, raising their starting hourly wage to $14.37 to $15.51, according to Ward.
Madelyn Valenzuela, an on-call housekeeper with the Surf-rider, said she is very happy with the new contract.
"It will help us so much," said Valenzuela, who has three children ages 16, 4 and 18 months. "We're glad that we're not forced to strike."
Also in the new contract proposal:
>> An assurance that guarantees hotel employees job security should their hotels come under new ownership.
>> Yearly wage increases for subcontracted employees, such as Team Clean's employees who are hired to deep-clean hotel rooms and kitchens. In 2003, subcontracted employees will receive 75 percent of what regular hotel employees earn. By July 1, 2007, a subcontracted employee will earn an income equal to a regular hotel employee, according to the union.
"We've succeeded in protecting our jobs on both of those accounts at this point," Gill said.
>> Limits on how many checkouts a housekeeper must handle daily.
The next step for Local 5 is to negotiate contracts with the Ilikai Renaissance Waikiki, the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Resort and Spa and the Ala Moana Hotel, Ward said. Ilikai and Hyatt employees have been working under an extended contract, and Ala Moana employees do not have a contract, according to Ward.
Union negotiators presented their demands to Hyatt officials yesterday, Gill said. "The basic thing is, this agreement we've reached with the Sheraton (and the Hilton) sets the pattern for the rest of Waikiki," Ward said.
Frank Lavey, Hyatt Waikiki general manager, said he hopes an agreement will be reached soon for the hotel's 500 union-represented workers.
"We met with (the union) last night. We've been negotiating all along but we just sort of took a back seat to the Sheraton and the Hilton," Lavey said. "We're very happy that a strike was averted. Nobody wins in that situation. It would have been terrible for the destination and the employees," he said.
"Anybody in the tourism industry should be very worried about a hotel workers' strike," said Rex Johnson, the new executive director of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. "I'm very hopeful that both management and labor will get to a position where this is not going to happen."
Star-Bulletin reporters Russ Lynch and Leila Fujimori contributed to this report.