Hawaiian Air
faces union setback

Two union groups fail to ratify
their modified contracts and a third
cancels a planned ratification vote

Hawaiian Airlines' tentative contract agreements with three union groups may be starting to unravel.

The company, which earlier this month said it had reached tentative pacts with 89 percent of its unionized work force, announced yesterday that both the clerical and machinists units of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers failed to ratify modified three-year contract extensions.

In addition, the Hawaiian Airlines unit of the Association of Flight Attendants has canceled a planned ratification vote this week for its 824 members.

With negotiations set to resume in Los Angeles today with the Air Line Pilots Association unit, the company suddenly has reason to be concerned on multiple fronts with a confirmation hearing on its reorganization plan scheduled for Feb. 8.

Hawaiian Airlines trustee Joshua Gotbaum declined to comment yesterday and issued a two-sentence statement saying that the company is working with the IAM to negotiate revised agreements.

Randy Kauhane, assistant general chairman of the IAM unit representing 1,349 clerical workers, said he's surveying membership to determine what led the company's largest unit to reject the contract.

"The vote was very close," he said. "That's why we're trying to review the major concerns."

Neither the company nor the union would release the vote totals.

The clerical workers include employees who work in accounting, reservations, customer services and ramp services.

Jesse Ikei, who represents 371 mechanics, line servicemen, aircraft inspectors and cleaners, could not be reached for comment.

Sharon Soper, president of the local flight attendants union, said the vote of the 792 members is in the process of being rescheduled.

"We're waiting to see what the IAM is doing to do, if they're making any changes to their agreements and if they're going to send it back out for ratification," Soper said.

The rejections by the IAM units, the vote cancellation by the flight attendants and the ongoing negotiations with the 301-member pilots union leaves the airline with just 34 union employees who have ratified contracts out of 2,847 at the airline, or less than 2 percent.

Those employees comprise 26 dispatchers in the Transport Workers Union and eight in the Network Engineers union.