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The News
The latest news from the ILWU Local 142!
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October 21, 2009 - Truth Commission reviews troubling conditions at Pacific Beach Hotel |
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HARD LABOR: SCARED WORKERS, EXHAUSTED EMPLOYEES, AND DECLINING STANDARDS AT A HAWAI‘I HOTEL Report of the Commission to Investigate Labor and Management Practices at the Pacific Beach Hotel Rev. Sam Cox, United Methodist Church, Chair Rev. John Heidel, Interfaith Alliance Hawai‘i Dr. Raymund Liongson, Leeward Community College Prof. Robert Perkinson, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa Prof. Mari Yoshihara, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
October 2009
The Commission to Investigate Labor and Management Practices at the Pacific Beach Hotel is an independent, non-partisan commission composed of religious, community and academic leaders.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - See full report here.
The Pacific Beach Hotel, on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, has been a site of labor conflict for much of the past decade. In recent years, the hotel has attracted regular protests, demonstrations and picket lines, and has become the focus of an international boycott, with the hotel’s labor practices targeted for protests in the U.S., Canada, Japan and the Philippines. Hotel management has maintained that the protests are politically motivated and baseless and that their employees are happy and well-treated. Many in the local community have heard both sides of this dispute and wondered: What is the Truth? The task of our Commission is to answer to that question. The Commission to Investigate Labor and Management Practices at the Pacific Beach Hotel is an independent, nonpartisan commission composed of religious, community and academic leaders. We have no financial relationship to the hotel, the employees’ union, or any interested party. During the past year, we conducted an investigation into conditions at the Pacific Beach Hotel. We solicited testimony from all hotel employees, as well the employees’ union (ILWU Local 142) and the hotel’s management. We conducted interviews with or received statements from thirty-eight employees—both pro- and anti-union, from every major department in the hotel, and with an average of 15 years’ experience working in the hotel. Our interviews were conducted under conditions of strict confidentiality so that employees would be free to talk without fear of reprisal. What we found disturbed all of us. For a state that relies, above all, on the ability of working- and middle-class families to support themselves in the tourism industry, the developments at Pacific Beach Hotel are very troubling. We offer our findings in the hope that they will spur our community as a whole to forge a quick and just solution to this crisis. |
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October 9, 2009 - NLRB slams Pacific Beach Hotel with 15 violations of law |
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Judge James Kennedy, NLRB Administrative Law Judge, issued his findings and order against Pacific Beach Hotel owners HTH Corporation on Sept. 30, 2009. He upheld 15 of the union's 16 unfair labor practice charges against the hotel. Judge Kennedy ordered hotel management to recognize the ILWU, rehire the fired negotiating committee members with back pay, start negotiations with the ILWU for a contract, pay the union's negotiating costs since 2005, rescind all unilateral changes and make whole employees hurt by the changes, hold employee meetings and read the NLRB notice of violations, and more. The hotel has until October 28, 2009 to file an appeal. However, the NLRB has denied every appeal made by hotel management since 2002. You can help by calling the General Manager of the Pacific Beach Hotel at 808-923-4511 or toll free at 800-367-6060 and urging management to meet with the ILWU and bargain in good faith as the the law requires. You can also fax a message to 808-922-8061. Ask for John Hayashi or Robert Minicola. The complete decision of Judge Kennedy can be found here. Following is the corrected text of the notice the hotel must post. In addition, management must call meetings of all bargaining unit employees, read the notice, and an NLRB agent would be present to answer questions. Notice to Employees
Posted By Order of the National Labor Relations Board
An Agency of the United States Government
The National Labor Relations Board has found that we violated Federal labor law and has ordered us
to post and obey this notice.
FEDERAL LAW GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO - Form, join or assist a union
- Choose representatives to bargain with us on your behalf
- Act together with other employees for your benefit and protection
- Choose not to engage in any of these protected activities.
WE WILL NOT coercively poll you concerning your support for International Longshore and arehouse Union, Local 142 or any other labor union and WE WILL NOT interrogate you about our union activities, sympathies and desires.
WE WILL NOT impose overbroad policies which interfere with your employee rights under §7 such as confidentiality and conflict of interest rules which would interfere with your legitimate union activity.
WE WILL NOT discharge any of our employees because of their activities protected by the National Labor Relations Act, including activities on behalf of Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142 or any other union.
WE WILL NOT collectively bargain without any intention of reaching an agreement with Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142.
WE WILL NOT withdraw recognition of Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142 as your exclusive bargaining representative in the certified bargaining unit nor refuse to recognize and bargain with that labor organization.
WE WILL NOT unilaterally change the terms and conditions of employment of our bargaining unit employees without first bargaining with Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142, including discharging employees or imposing changes in employee behavior rules.
WE WILL NOT fail and refuse to furnish Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142 with information it requested which is necessary and relevant information to collective bargaining and for its ability to properly represent you.
WE WILL NOT threaten any of you with loss of your job or some other unspecified punishment because you have chosen to engage in Union activity.
WE WILL NOT in any other manner interfere with, restrain, or coerce any of you if you exercise your rights guaranteed you by law as listed above. WE WILL immediately resume recognition of Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142 as the exclusive representative of the employees in the certified bargaining unit and, upon the Union’s request, bargain in good faith in that bargaining unit as if the initial year of certification had been extended for an additional 1 year from the commencement of bargaining pursuant to the Board's Order in this case and, if an understanding is reached, WE WILL embody it in a written, signed agreement.
WE WILL, on the Union’s request, rescind all of the unilateral changes, whether found in the employee handbook or some other location, and restore the previously existing wages and other terms and conditions of employment as they existed prior to December 1, 2007, and WE WILL make unit employees and former unit employees whole for any losses suffered as a result of those unilateral changes. However, the Union has the option of determining which of these shall be rescinded.
WE WILL furnish the information requested by the Union in April, May, September and October 2007 and in April 2008.
WE WILL, within 14 days from the date of this Order, offer Keith Kapena Kanaiaupuni, Darryl Miyashiro, Todd Hatanaka, Rhandy Villanueva, Virginia Recaido, Ruben Bumanglag and Virbina Revamonte full reinstatement to their former jobs or, if those jobs no longer exist, to substantially equivalent positions displacing, if necessary, any more junior employees, without prejudice to their seniority or any other rights or privileges previously enjoyed and WE WILL make them whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits suffered as a result of the discrimination against them.
WE WILL, within 14 days from the date of this Order, remove from our files any reference to the unlawful discharges of Keith Kapena Kanaiaupuni, Darryl Miyashiro, Todd Hatanaka, Rhandy Villanueva, Virginia Recaido, Ruben Bumanglag and Virbina Revamonte, and within 3 days thereafter notify each of them in writing that this has been done and that the discharges will not be used against them in any way.
WE WILL preserve and, within 14 days of a request, or such additional time as the Regional Director may allow for good cause shown, provide at a reasonable place designated by the Board or its agents, all payroll records, social security payment records, timecards, personnel records and reports, and all other records, including an electronic copy of such records if stored in electronic form, necessary to analyze the amount of backpay due under the terms of this Order.
WE WILL pay to Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142 the costs and expenses incurred by it in the preparation and conduct of collective-bargaining negotiations subsequent to January 5, 2005, such costs and expenses to be determined at the compliance stage of this proceeding. WE WILL also make whole employee negotiators for any earnings lost while attending bargaining sessions.
WE WILL, within 60 consecutive days of the date of the Board’s Order, convene the bargaining unit employees during working time at the Respondent’s facility, by shifts, and a responsible management official, in the presence of a Board Agent, will read this notice to you. Afterwards, you will be permitted to ask the Board Agent to explain what has happened.
HTH CORPORATION, PACIFIC BEACH
CORPORATION and KOA MANAGEMENT, LLC, a
SINGLE EMPLOYER, d/b/a PACIFIC BEACH HOTEL |
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Sept 18, 2009 - Local 142 Convention sets future direction for union |
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ILWU democracy puts the members in charge of their union. They do this by meeting in Convention to decide the policies and programs of the union, set the finances and budget, and make all other rules which govern the union. The Convention is the highest governing body of the union. It is held once every three years in the month of September. 
This was the 25th Convention and it was held from September 15-18, 2009, at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel in Waikiki, Honolulu. Approximately 367 rank and file members from ILWU units throughout the State of Hawaii attended the Convention. About 39 fraternal delegates (retirees) and guests from Mainland ILWU locals and elsewhere were also in attendance for a total of 406 participants.  All four county mayors sang for ILWU delegates at the Banquet on September 17. |
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August 20, 2009 - Labor Groups Target Sun Life Financial in Toronto, Canada and in Manila, Philippines. |
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Protestors picketed the company's headquarters and distributed leaflets calling on the company to
protect the conditions of Filipino workers employed at a hotel that Sun Life holds the mortgage on.
“If Sun Life wants to do business in the Philippines,” noted Democrito Mendoza, president of the
Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, “the very least we can expect in return is that it will
guarantee fair treatment for Filipino workers in the properties it controls.”
Sun Life is the primary investor in the Pacific Beach Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. Pacific Beach Hotel
has been charged by the U.S. government with 15 counts of violating federal labor law, including
intimidating, coercing and firing employees for union activism. In December 2007, Pacific Beach Hotel
refused to negotiate with the workers' legally elected union, and terminated 32 employees, including
most of the elected union leaders. In response, a boycott of the hotel was called by the Hawaii labor
federation, and then by the national labor federations of both the USA (AFL-CIO) and Japan
(RENGO).
This past May, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Ontario Federation of Labour sent pickets to
Sun Life's annual shareholder meeting in Toronto, calling on the company to guarantee fair treatment
for workers in this property.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) recently joined with the Federation of Free
Workers (FFW) and the Alliance of Independent Hotel and Restaurant Workers Unions (AIHRWU) in
calling for Filipinos to support this boycott. The three unions together represent close to one million
workers in the Philippines.
The majority of employees at the Pacific Beach Hotel are Filipino, and they appealed for support from
their home country. “The workers at Pacific Beach Hotel work so hard,” explained Virgie Recaido, one
of the sacked Pacific Beach Hotel workers. “We cook the food, we make the beds, we clean the rooms,
we do everything to make the hotel a success - just so we can make a better life for our kids. But the
management treats us with no respect and no dignity.”
The union representing these hotel workers - International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142
- has asked Sun Life to use its relationship with Pacific Beach Hotel to guarantee fair treatment for the
workers. To date, Sun Life has refused to get involved.
“These hard-working people deserve to be treated with respect, and they deserve a fair contract,” stated
Ontario Labour Federation president Wayne Samuelson. “It's an embarrassment for a leading Canadian
company to be developing a worldwide reputation because it won't support these most basic principles.
We here in Toronto - like unionists around the world - call on Sun Life to do the right thing.”
in Protest
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Aug 18, 2009 - Website Assists Tourism Workers |
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A Tourism Workforce Advisory Council has been established by University of Hawaii Travel Industry Management (UH-TIM), Hawaii Tourism Authority, and the State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) to discuss workforce needs for the industry. A major resource is a website to assist employers but mostly to assist workers interested in getting into tourism careers or moving up the career ladder. |
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