Before March 2020, life was good for the tourism industry and its workers.
"Pre-pandemic, God, life was great," said Gabe Coit, a member of UNITE Here Local 5, and a former valet at The Modern Honolulu. "We got a little raise, we've got a little bit more increase on our porterage on our cars that we parked. And everything was fine and dandy."
In 2019, more than 10 million visitors came to the state, spending nearly $18 billion. Of that, $7.65 billion was spent on lodging — accounting for nearly 43% of total visitor spending that year.
But then the COVID-19 pandemic brought the state's tourism industry to an immediate and complete stop. A majority of the state's hospitality workers were furloughed.
And like most hospitality workers, the next year and a half was a nightmare for Coit.
"I was having issues with unemployment, wasn't getting paid, stuff like that," he said. "It was just a real headache, knowing that you had a pretty decent job, you know, a little security. I got a family as well, and all that was tarnished just because of what happened."
Hawaiʻi remains one of the most impacted states when it comes to unemployed hospitality workers. That's according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which estimates nearly 13,000 hospitality workers in the state will not be called back to work this year.
That's a decline of 29% compared to the number of jobs in 2019.
But for the state's largest hospitality worker union, a majority of its members are back at work.
"Right now, we're almost under 70% of our hospitality members back to work. And that's around 6,000 hotel workers," said Bryant de Venecia, a spokesperson for UNITE Here Local 5.
The union represents roughly 9,000 hospitality workers in the state.
De Venecia says the union's contract with hotels allows for its members to return to work when droves of visitors began arriving earlier this year. But there are still "a few thousand" workers that remain furloughed. And despite that agreement, he says it has been an uphill climb to get employees recalled.
"The reality is [that] in every hotel property, we have to identify what are the positions that can be an opportunity for someone to come back," he said. "For exmaple, we've seen that when the hotels opened, they tried recalling as little workers as possible. We've seen that some management are doing our jobs."
For Coit, he says The Modern decided to get rid of valet service entirely.
"It's actually pretty sad, because valet is an important key to any hotel," he said. "It's a big thing for a tourist . . . You show up to the front, you get your bags taken up to the room and your car parked. That's the good thing about when you're on vacation."
Coit says the hotel has moved to a self-park model. And although The Modern gave furloughed employees an opportunity to apply for other positions, Coit is taking a break from the industry, and says he's working to become an electrician.
But even if he was brought back, he says he still has concerns with safety, now that the delta variant of COVID-19 is spreading.
De Venecia says safety is still a concern for the union. But the main concern is getting members back to work — especially with unemployment benefits set to expire on Sept. 6.
"It's not only about the pay, but a big thing — especially during the pandemic — is health care benefits," he said. "Our members, most of them, have no health care coverage for over a year now. And it is anxiety inducing, right, to not have health care in the pandemic."
HPR reached out to Diamond Resorts, the owner of The Modern Honolulu, but did not receive a response.
Most of Local 5's members work at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and Kyo-Ya Properties, which include the Sheraton Waikīkī, Princess Kaʻiulani, and Moana Surfrider hotels. HPR reached out to those hotels as well, but they declined to comment on this story.
