Team hits Friendly Isle to help workers survive ranch closing

As the island's biggest employer closes, residents flock to a meeting on state help

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MAUNALOA, Molokai » Soon-to-be-unemployed Molokai Ranch workers gathered yesterday in a Maunaloa theater to hear what services and advice a state "rapid-response" team had to offer.

State officials briefed employees on unemployment benefits, job opportunities on Molokai and Maui, medical insurance and other potential assistance.

The ranch announced Monday it was closing operations and laying off 120 employees because its luxury home development plans have been stymied by opponents.

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MAUNALOA, Molokai » Carrying her 1-year-old baby, Jaisa, Janice Robello waited outside the soon-to-close Maunaloa Town Cinemas to hear what kind of help the state can provide her and her family.

Robello, a waitress, is one of about 120 employees who are losing their jobs when the 110-year-old Molokai Ranch closes. One of dozens of ranch employees who attended a briefing yesterday by state officials, Robello said she was most interested in hearing about unemployment benefits. "That's what's going to keep us afloat."

On Monday the company announced it is closing Molokai Lodge, Kaupoa Beach Village, Kaluakoi Golf Course, Maunaloa gas station, Maunaloa Town Cinemas and its cattle-rearing business.

Most of the businesses will shut by April 5, but employees will be paid through May 22 as the company winds down operations. An undetermined number of workers will stay on to operate the water system and maintain the grounds.

A team from the state Department of Labor and other state agencies held two meetings with the workers to let them know about unemployment benefits, medical insurance options, job search and training assistance, and other programs available to them.

State Labor Director Darwin Ching said the workers listened attentively, and he added that the state will be back to help them through the closure. He said the department is trying to set up a job fair in three weeks. "We're here, and we're going to continue to be here," he said.

In addition, the Labor Department will fly in extra workers to help ranch employees file for unemployment benefits on May 22.

Robello said yesterday's meeting was helpful. Her baby is covered by the state's QUEST insurance program, and she is trying to find out whether she and her husband also will be able to join QUEST after the ranch closes.

Robello said other family members who have moved from the island to Maui are urging her to also move and get a job on the Valley Isle.

Molokai Ranch worker Theresa McCutcheon has been through this before. She was laid off when the Kaluakoi resort hotel closed several years ago. "Molokai was a ghost town for a short time after Kaluakoi closed," she said.

The latest closure comes at a particularly bad time for her and her family. McCutcheon said she and her husband burned through their savings when her father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and mother died recently. She and her husband took off from work for several months to be with them before they died.

In addition, she said, her daughter also works for the ranch, and another daughter and a granddaughter just moved back in hopes of getting a job at the ranch. "I'm just totally devastated," she said.

After 20 years in the food and beverage industry, McCutcheon said she is not sure she is ready for or even qualifies for a desk job, and she is too young to qualify for retirement benefits. "Many of us do not know how to fish (to feed her family)," she said.

McCutcheon started a cleaning business after the Kaluakoi resort closed, but gave it up when she got the job at Molokai Ranch. She still has service credits with Unite Here Local 5 and said she might try to find a union job on Oahu to get enough credits to qualify for retirement benefits in 10 years.

The Labor Department provided a list of state and private-sector jobs open on Molokai. There were 20 vacant state positions, including clerk-typist, auto mechanic and irrigation worker jobs. But other jobs, like nurses and social workers, required specialized education.

About 30 private-sector jobs on Molokai also were listed, including at the Hotel Molokai, which already is seeing an increase in its banquet business and reservations since the announcement of the closure of Molokai Lodge.