CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Eufemia Fontanilla worked as a Del Monte pineapple picker for 28 years, making $10 an hour until she went on medical leave last year. Her husband, Alvaro Fontanilla, was a drip installer. They are especially worried about losing the three-bedroom house they rent from Del Monte for $286 a month. CLICK FOR LARGE

Laid-off Del Monte workers start sorting out the damage

It is not clear if residents can stay in Kunia Camp homes

Eighty-year-old Eufemia Fontanilla wonders if she will have to return to the Philippines because Del Monte Fresh Produce Hawaii Inc. is laying off 551 workers in January.

"I cannot sleep last night. My children no more work," said Fontanilla, who emigrated from Ilocos Sur in 1978.

The future remained uncertain for many Del Monte employees a day after the company announced Friday that it was shutting down its Kunia operation, more than a year ahead of schedule. The company began plowing up some of its last pineapple crop yesterday.

City and state officials prepared to mitigate the mass layoff.

"I just wish that Del Monte had stuck to their original turnover plan, giving us more lead time so we could get our plans in place," said City Council member Nestor Garcia.

State officials said the departments of Agriculture and Labor and Industrial Relations are working with the city to lessen the impact on the employees.

James Hardway, special assistant to the director of the labor department, said state and city staff have been working with Del Monte since it announced in February that it would start phasing in layoffs in preparation for a 2008 closure. The staff has been doing surveys, evaluating job skills, and providing training for the displaced employees.

"We've already got guys that have been working out there, so it's not that hard to ramp up," Hardway said.

A rapid-response team, including staff members from the labor department and the city's One Stop Centers of Oahu Work Links, will begin working with Del Monte's management and the labor union, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 142, tomorrow to meet the hundreds of employees no longer at the job site.

The employees include office workers, truck drivers and mechanics, with a majority of them farm laborers.

Hardway said several farms in Hawaii have been experiencing labor shortages, and some farmers have contracted with agencies to bring in workers from overseas.

"A lot of them have expressed in the last six months that they need workers," he said.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Alvaro Fontanilla doesn't know what he and his wife, Eufemia, will do once the Del Monte operation ceases. The couple, in their 80s, continued to work at Del Monte after they retired. Both are now on medical leave and are considering moving back to the Philippines if they lose their company-owned housing. CLICK FOR LARGE

The Estate of James Campbell, the landowner, said Del Monte's lease on the property continues until December 2008 and that the houses are under Del Monte's control until then. Campbell Estate spokeswoman Theresia McMurdo said the estate has been in talks with unions and the government for a solution.

Eufemia Fontanilla is more worried about the three-bedroom house she rents with her husband from Del Monte in Kunia Camp for $286 a month.

"I don't know if broke the house or what. If no house, I go back Philippines," said Fontanilla, who continued to work for Del Monte after retiring as a pineapple picker. She worked until last year, when she went on sick leave for diabetes and asthma. Two of Fontanillo's children also work at Del Monte, and three work at Dole Plantation.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Wally Calizo and his son Chevie, 7, have both grown up on the Del Monte plantation. Calizo, who lives with his father, Rolly, a Del Monte worker, has been unemployed. CLICK FOR LARGE

Her husband, Alvaro Fontanilla, 81, also continued working as a drip installer for Del Monte even after he had retired. He said he didn't know what he could do without a job, because his Social Security payment is too small.

Linda Innis, 53, said she was laid off from her job in the processing plant on Monday with 19 other workers.

Innis, who had worked for Del Monte for 18 years, said she had been going to civics class at Kunia Camp with the city's Work Links employees, who are teaching Del Monte workers how to fill out job applications and helping her obtain her high school diploma.

When the youngest of her three children graduates from Leilehua High School next year, Innis said her husband and two children plan to move to Illinois to be closer to family. Their third child is already in Chicago, she said.

"For now I'm happy, so I can move on," she said. "There's no more future over here. There's nothing you can do, because the place is closing down."