There's unrest on the local labor front as hotel workers shift into high gear with strike preparations and United Airlines flight attendants announce the results of their nationwide strike vote.
The tourism industry faces a potential strike from hotel workers amid union contract negotiations with the companies that operate the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Hyatt Regency Waikiki, Moana Surfrider, The Royal Hawaiian, Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, Sheraton Waikiki, Waikiki Beach Marriott, and the Sheraton Kauai Resort.
Unite Here! Local 5 represents more than 5,000 workers at those eight hotel properties.
"The changes we've seen coming out of the pandemic, particularly related to workload and staffing cuts, are cuts that our hotel operators and owners have attempted to make permanent," said Cade Watanabe of the local union.
He said the potential strike is the union's biggest mobilization in over 30 years. About 2,700 hotel workers went on strike for 51 days in 2018. Before that, the last major hotel strike in Hawaiʻi was in 1990, when 8,000 workers from 11 hotels picketed for three weeks.
"The big concern is whether or not we're going to have tourism that really works for us locals, and tourism that works for our guests as well, because the impact has not just been one on our hotel workers and hospitality workers, but it has also had a huge impact on the level and quality of service that our guests have come to expect and deserve," Watanabe said.
For example, he said, it is not unusual for Hilton Hawaiian Village guests to wait 45 minutes in line to check in.
"Our hotel owners and operators continue to make as much money today, if not more prior to the pandemic. They're charging our guests even more and providing less service," Watanabe said.
The union also just avoided a nationwide walkout of airline catering workers, ratifying a contract with Gate Gourmet.
At many airports across the country and in Honolulu, United Airlines employees under the Association of Flight Attendants held an informational picket Wednesday to announce the results of their strike authorization vote. They want pay increases and other benefits.
"United Flight attendants voted 99.9% to authorize a strike if necessary," said Kevin Batey, the president of AFA Local Council 14. "Recent strike authorization votes have propelled flight attendant negotiations forward at American, Alaska and Southwest, resulting in tentative agreements at all three of those carriers within a matter of months after their strike authorization vote."
This is United Airlines' first strike vote in 19 years. Batey said the group is nowhere near a strike as of right now. Among the required steps, the union would have to request permission from the National Mediation Board.
"We're hoping that United will understand the seriousness that flight attendants are demanding that we get a contract that we can ratify in the foreseeable future and not have to wait years for it," Batey told HPR. "Flight attendants need relief now."
This interview aired on The Conversation on Aug. 28, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
