GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM Maintenance workers with International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 picketed the entrance to Kapalua resort yesterday, where they began a strike at three golf courses.

Union workers go on strike
at 3 Kapalua golf courses

A spokeswoman says that Kapalua Land
has already made an offer

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By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

WAILUKU >> Some 120 ILWU workers went on strike yesterday at three golf courses at the Kapalua resort.

Union spokesman Leonard Nakoa III said the union has been without a contract since Feb. 15, and members decided to strike because they felt employer Kapalua Land Co. had bargained in bad faith.

Local 142 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board earlier this year alleging bad-faith bargaining.

Kapalua Land spokeswoman Caroline Egli said the company is continuing to operate the Village Course, Bay Course and Plantation Course during the strike.

She said Kapalua made an offer to the union on Feb. 25 that was higher than the initial 9 percent wage increase the company proposed earlier this year but lower than 15 percent asked by the union.

"We have not received a response to that offer," Egli said. "So, the ball is in their court."

Nakoa said the union has asked the company to open its financial books so the workers can examine the basis for Kapalua's offer, but the company has provided only "vague numbers."

Nakoa said the workers were upset to find out that while they received a 10 percent wage cutback after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, two top executives with Kapalua Land each had received $2,000 bonuses.

Egli said talking about union wages and executive pay packages was like "comparing apples to oranges." She said following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, both workers and executives at the company had pay cuts.

Egli said giving performance bonuses to executives was not unusual.

She said the company's understanding is that under the National Labor Relations Board Act, a business is required to open its books only if it is claiming "poverty" and inability to meet union wage demands. "We have not pleaded poverty," she said.