Aloha Festivals week winds up with a floral parade through Waikīkī on Saturday. Then Monday kicks off the state’s tourism conference. Playing out behind the buzz around the state's economic engine is a labor dispute with hotel workers.
Talks broke off between Hilton and UNITE HERE! Local 5 on Sept. 12, and on Tuesday, union members walked off the job at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort.
The union said that workers from Sheraton and The Royal Hawaiian joined fellow members on the picket line Thursday afternoon. Workers paraded around the 21-acre Hilton property amid a crowd of tourists who flocked to watch the sunset on the beach.
The Conversation caught up with Miro Stuke of the University of Washington. They were staying at the hotel this week for an American Society for Horticulture Science convention.
Stuke said they were unaware of the labor dispute until the walkout Tuesday morning. They said the picketing disrupted the conference and made for less than a pleasant stay.
"The support you would expect at a conference like this just hasn't been there," they said. "There's been almost no sort of service, things like checking in and checking out, we can't even talk to a person, and the lines are just ridiculous."
Stuke said housekeeping has been totally shut down as well. They said they left the hotel to buy soap because there wasn't any in the room.
The hotel experience varied among the guests who spoke to HPR. One woman said things had been fine for her stay, and another who just checked into the hotel said she would have to wait and see from day to day.
Christopher Cave, who lives on the continent and travels through Hawaiʻi almost monthly, said he usually stays at Hilton properties but opted for a different hotel this trip.
"The strikers have been present for the last few days that I've been here, and they obviously have a cause that they feel passionate about," Cave told HPR while watching the sunset near the Hilton.
He said the local labor dispute is a sign of the times.
"People feel like they're overworked and they're underappreciated. And this is a real problem, I think, throughout the country right now. It's not just limited to the hospitality industry, so management and some of these entities, they're going to have to come to the bargaining table, because you're going to see a lot more of this," Cave told HPR.
HPR also spotted a couple who traveled from South Korea with family to celebrate their anniversary. They had just renewed their vows and were to check out Friday.
They said the strike put a damper on their short visit. They lamented it was inconvenient but that they tried to make the best of it, opting to celebrate with a dinner last night off property.
Meanwhile, the Hawaiʻi Nurses' Association returned to the bargaining table Friday morning after meeting with the federal mediator Thursday until 7 p.m. Hotel workers said they may join the union nurses in a protest line at Kapiʻolani Medical Center next week.
UNITE HERE! Local 5 said more than 4,000 hotel workers across the U.S. are now on open-ended strikes at Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels in San Diego, San Francisco and Honolulu. The union said strikes are possible at any time at the other seven Hawai‘i hotels that have authorized strikes — "should strike issues remain unresolved."
HPR's efforts to get a statement from the Hilton have not been successful.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Sept. 27, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
