Concrete workers OK
end of strikeWork resumes Monday for
Hawaiian Cement’s
67 employees
Hawaiian Cement's striking concrete workers voted 2-to-1 yesterday to return to work under a five-year contract that includes a wage and pension increase but also raises the money that union members have to pay for medical insurance.
Forty-two of the 62 Hawaiian Cement workers who voted in yesterday's secret ballot approved of the contract, which took company and union negotiators 40 strike days to hash out. Twenty workers opposed the deal and five did not vote.
The mixer truck drivers and quarry workers will return to work Monday, union and company officials said.
After the votes were tallied, Teamsters Local 996 President Mel Kahele said he was "not happy" with the contract, which includes a 20 percent medical insurance premium co-payment.
"I believe that's the issue that drove us out on strike," he said.
But he also said that "if the company had put this package on the table prior to us walking out, I don't believe we would have been out there."
Under the previous contract, the concrete workers paid no medical insurance premiums. Before the strike, they made $67,000 to $116,000 on average annually, according to management.
To help offset the increased medical costs, workers under the newly approved contract will get a wage and pension increase package that totals $3.80 an hour -- a $1 hourly raise for the first year of the contract and 70-cent increases for each of the remaining four years.
Hawaiian Cement also agreed to pay up to five years of retirees' medical coverage or until they reach an age that can be covered.
"I believe the company could have done more," said Ben Ramos, a union negotiator and 29-year veteran of Hawaiian Cement. Hawaiian Cement mixer driver Ben Garces, though, said concrete workers are "ready to go back to work."
"Six weeks is a long time," he said.
Workers voted on the contract about 2 p.m., and results were released 30 minutes later. Earlier in the day, Gov. Linda Lingle spoke to the concrete workers at Teamsters' Kalihi headquarters in hopes of convincing them to accept the deal.
"She came down and spoke to the guys just prior to their ratification vote," Hawaiian Cement Vice President Michael Coad said, "and I know the governor to be a very convincing speaker."
Coad said that he is "very pleased" his company will be delivering concrete again by Monday morning and whittling a backlog of scheduled pours that could take weeks to complete.
The workers' first three jobs are set for 7:30 a.m. Monday, when crews will pour 160 cubic yards of concrete at the Hickam Family Housing Project, 150 cubic yards at a Schuler Homes development in Makakilo and 110 cubic yards at Punahou School's Case Middle School.
"We're working hard ... (and) we're starting with our existing customers," Coad said. "The company is willing to work weekends and evenings if necessary."
But even with that, Coad stressed, Hawaiian Cement will not be able to meet all of the island's concrete demands.
Some 144 unionized workers at Ameron Hawaii, Oahu's largest concrete provider, have been walking picket lines since Feb. 6.
Union negotiators rejected the company's "last, best and final" offer Thursday night, deciding not to send the proposal to the union's membership for a vote. No new talks are scheduled between Ameron and the union.
"We got 144 people out there that are eager to go back to work, but not under those conditions that they put under their final offer," Kahele said yesterday.
In its latest proposal, Ameron offered a $3.80 hourly wage increase in the first year of a five-year contract and also sought a 30 percent medical co-payment.
Under the proposal, the union also had the option of taking the wage and co-payment increase in the contract's third year while accepting no pay raises -- but keeping the medical co-payments at 20 percent -- for the first two years.
Ameron Hawaii Vice President George West said Thursday that he would research whether the union had an obligation to take the company's "last, best and final" offer to its membership. West could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Meanwhile, Coad said Hawaiian Cement "cannot provide or meet the total demand for concrete on this island."
"We're at a difficult position trying to meet all the requests. ... There's plenty of work for both of us. There's no question that we need Ameron back up and running."