Hundreds to be laid off
as Kahoolawe work ends
WAILUKU >> Some 350 Kahoolawe cleanup workers -- to be laid off by the largest U.S. Department of Defense ordnance-clearing project -- are expected at a job fair 8 a.m. to noon tomorrow at the Maui Beach Hotel.
State labor officials on Maui said it will be the largest layoff in recent years; the last large layoff on Maui was in 1999 when Pioneer Mill Co. Ltd. in Lahaina shut down its operations and laid off 147 full-time and seasonal workers.
The Parsons-UXB Joint Venture workers on the cleanup authorized by Congress in 1993 include clerks, heavy equipment operators, archaeologists, environmental specialists and surveyors.
James Froneberger, project manager for Parsons, said this is the first job fair he has seen in his 10 years of experience.
Froneberger said most ordnance-clearing jobs usually take from three to nine months rather than several years as on Kahoolawe.
He said about 150 workers will be laid off Jan. 5-6, including those clearing ordnance.
Froneberger said the last day of work is March 12, and the remaining workers will be doing various tasks, such as shipping out materials, conducting quality-control inspections and posting warning signs to establish ordnance clearance boundaries.
During the joint venture's more than five years of work clearing 75 percent of the surface of the 28,000-acre island, 92,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance -- ranging from bullets to 2,000-pound bombs -- were disposed of, the Navy estimated.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis said workers removed some 9 million pounds of scrap metal, including old vehicles used as targets, and also 12,700 tires, many used to mark targets.
"If you were to stack them (tires) on the island, it would be a mile in the air," Davis said.
Parsons officials said a little more than 80 of the employees who are explosive-ordnance experts trained in the military will probably be looking for work in the United States and other countries.
Their salary can be high but the job is dangerous.
Roy Buckmaster, an ordnance clearing supervisor who worked on Kahoolawe for several years, went to Iraq to earn some $200,000 a year demolishing ammunition and weapons used by the former regime; he was killed Nov. 2 after a bomb hit a vehicle carrying him.
Officials said for most who were employed for the Kahoolawe project and received on-the-job training, finding a similar job elsewhere might be difficult since many other contractors usually hire specially trained ordnance experts.
Froneberger said the jobs are also short-term work and require employees to spend money to move to new ordnance-clearing sites.
"For short-term projects, I don't know if it would be worth it," he said.
Many of the Maui County residents working on Kahoolawe were part of teams that used hand-held metal detectors to find potential surface ordnance and earned a little more than $19 an hour.
Employers at the job fair include Parsons and a number of service companies related to the visitor industry.
Kevin Kimizuka, branch manager of the state Workforce Development Division, said a number of the workers belong to unions that will assist them in finding other employment.
He said those who are looking for a job different from the one they had on Kahoolawe could qualify for training for other employment.
Rick Apana, who supervises workers using hand-held metal detectors on Kahoolawe, said he plans to stay on Maui where he has family and relatives.
But he said he is doubtful he will find a job paying as much as he is currently earning: more than $21 a hour.
"It's going to be very difficult," he said.
Department of Labor
