Two local unions that have historically been competitors are joining forces to fight for better wages and working conditions for hotel workers.
Workers from ILWU Local 142 and UNITE HERE! Local 5 held an afternoon rally Tuesday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort as contract negotiations continued between UNITE HERE! and several hotels.
“The only way that the message will be heard is when organizations representing the majority of the local working families in Hawaiʻi get together to send a message that our people deserve to be able to stay here. And the only way it's going to happen is if, two things, we lower the cost of living and raise wages,” said ILWU Local 142 President Chris West.
Thousands of UNITE HERE! workers across the country went on a three-day strike over the Labor Day weekend — its largest strike in over 30 years. The union members work at seven hotels in Waikīkī and one on Kauaʻi, including Hilton Hawaiian Village, Moana Surfrider and The Royal Hawaiian.
Hotel workers under ILWU are also in contract talks across the state or expect to be negotiating soon. West said ILWU represents a majority of workers in unionized hotels on the neighbor islands.
"This march is not saying that they're not bargaining in good faith. It's just saying that local families and local people are fed up," West told HPR. "There's still a huge portion of profits that they made coming out of COVID that wasn't shared amongst the people that make these hotels successful, which is their workers."
West said the two unions are the state's largest private unions with about 10,000 workers represented by UNITE HERE! and 16,000 by ILWU.
"We started building relationship and talking with each other three years ago," West said. "It's something that should have happened a long time ago, but I believe, you know, maybe egos were involved, which prevented it, but it's absolutely something that needs to happen with all unions moving forward."
Negotiators for hoteliers Marriott and Kyo-ya were scheduled to meet with UNITE HERE! on Wednesday. Hilton agreed to come to the table on Thursday, and Hyatt will return next week to hash out a new working contract.
Cade Watanabe of UNITE HERE! underscored the other unions' support of UNITE HERE!'s efforts to hammer out a new working contract. The union said that flight attendants currently bargaining with the airlines have relocated from Waikīkī hotels because of the threat of a larger hotel worker walkout.
"No matter what union you're a member of, no matter what city you work in, the changes that we've dealt with related to the COVID-era pandemic cuts have really taken a toll on our ability as hospitality workers to provide the service that our guests pay for, expect, and that we want to provide every day," Watanabe told HPR.
On another labor front, the Hawaiʻi Nurses' Association is set to meet with management of Hawaiʻi Pacific Health on Thursday to try and avert a walkout on Friday — and a threatened lockout by management, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the local health care industry.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Sept. 11, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
