BARRY MARKOWITZ / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN / MARCH 2004 Hotel workers union members are shown last year rallying to promote a boycott against Turtle Bay Resort in a labor dispute.

Turtle Bay lawyers
tell lawmakers
to back off

Legislators' support violates ethics
laws, resort attorneys say

Attorneys for Turtle Bay Resort, which has been involved in an 18-month labor dispute, are demanding that legislators withdraw their support for union workers.

A letter dated May 19 was directed to 29 lawmakers who signed a pledge of support for union workers in their contract dispute. In that letter, San Francisco attorney Daniel Berkley asked for a public retraction.

"We request that you or Local 5 publish a statement notifying the public of such a withdrawal of your support," the letter said.

Berkley also questioned the ethics of the 29 legislators for involving themselves in what he considers a private labor dispute.

"Your support of the union also engages you directly in private dispute, which based upon information received from a recent visit with the Hawaii Ethics Commission, is neither ethically appropriate nor acceptable," Berkley wrote.

Lawmakers including Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Makua) viewed the letter as a threat and an attempt to intimidate the Legislature.

"This affects our First Amendment rights of free speech. It has implications all around," Hanabusa said. "If they (Turtle Bay) want to, why don't they file an ethics complaint against every legislator who signed the pledge?"

"No legislator wants to be accused that they are violating the ethics code, to use the ethics code as a hammer. I find that extremely questionable," Hanabusa said.

Dan Mollway, state Ethics Commission executive director, denied that he had told Berkley that the lawmakers were in violation of ethics laws.

"The statement isn't accurate. I didn't give him any dispositive advice. I told him it would have to be brought before the Ethics Commission," Mollway said.

Berkley said he was representing his client and had done his own research into what was considered acceptable constituent services.

"It is just an opinion or an analysis of what information we have received. If his concern is that we are quoting the conversation with him, that wasn't done."

"We are saying that is the information we had. We were not quoting anybody. It is what we believe to be the case, and we believe it to be wrong," Berkley said.

Berkley and Abid Butt, Turtle Bay managing director, are concerned that lawmakers are supporting calls from Local 5, the hotel workers union, to support a boycott of the North Shore resort.

"A dispute exists, and the Legislature is trying to throw some weight behind it and it is really inappropriate for them to do it," Berkley said.

Berkley contends that constituent services do not include "endorsement of union activity in this sort of private context."

Butt said legislators were drawn into the dispute with the union after Local 5 bussed hotel workers and retired workers to the Capitol "to tell legislators they were about to lose their benefits, and that was clearly not true."

"The union is trying to shut down our business that provides jobs on the North Shore," Butt said. "Our desire never has been, nor is it today, to have this dealt with by the Legislature," Butt said.

Rep. Maile Shimabukuro (D, Waianae-Makua) also complained about the letter, saying she thought legislators had a responsibility to be involved in community issues.

"It doesn't appear we did anything wrong. We are supposed to have opinions -- it is our job. These conflicts come to us, and we are expected to take a stand," said Shimabukuro, who is also an attorney.

Senate President Robert Bunda, who did not sign the pledge, said he thought lawmakers were not violating ethics laws.

"Whether you put our name on something or tell people you are advocating on their behalf, to me that is constituent service, and I don't think it is a violation," Bunda said.

Bunda and Hanabusa both recalled that legislators helped teachers who went on strike four years ago.

Eric Gill, financial secretary-treasurer of Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, said the union is trying to get legislative support by having lawmakers sign a pledge to support a boycott of the hotel.

"The workers are seeking support as local residents," Gill said.

The union represents 300 workers at the resort, which completed a $60 million renovation two years ago. It is owned by Oaktree Capital Management of Los Angeles and managed by Texas-based Benchmark Hospitality.

The union picketed the hotel last month to protest working conditions. Hotel workers have been working without a labor contract for nearly three years.