Union leaders from Unite Here! Local 5 met with members of Maui's hospitality and health care industries over the weekend.
Financial Secretary and Treasurer Cade Watanabe said more than 300 of its members work with Kaiser Permanente or in West Maui hotels.
He said the union is talking with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which also represents hotel workers. The two unions are working on coordinating efforts to address shared issues.
"There's a real concern about what's going to happen in two weeks, four weeks when the federal government just leaves and is no longer staying in some of our hotels, and what does the recovery look like?" Watanabe said.
"The real concern is the investment that's going to be made in the long term to make sure that our people can return, for those that want to, and making sure that they have jobs to go back to is number one," he told The Conversation.
Watanabe said active union members and retirees in Lāhainā lost their homes and are eligible for hardship grants from the national union.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Sept. 19, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
