Turnabout in hotel dispute: pickets at the union office

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Wednesday, August 7, 2002

Turnabout in hotel dispute: pickets at the union office

Sacha Mendelsohn

The local hotel union, which recently picketed the Hilton Hawaiian Village,

has itself been picketed by Hilton subcontractor employees.

In an interesting twist to disputes between Hilton and its main labor union,

employees of Team Clean picketed the office of the Hotel Employees and

Restaurant Employees Union late Tuesday afternoon.

Nearly 50 people gathered, shouted slogans and carried signs in a picket

line in front of the Local 5 office on Ala Moana Boulevard.

Team Clean is a subcontractor that does cleaning for Hilton and Sheraton.

Picketers said they were demonstrating to keep their jobs.

Local 5, which recently blocked the entrance to the Hilton Hawaiian Village

during informational picketing, represents Team Clean workers as well as

direct employees of the Hilton.

One of the many professionally made picket signs read, " I am more afraid of

than the mold. " Gill is leader of the union's Local 5.

Team Clean workers are among those most exposed to mold in the Kalia Tower,

which got so bad the hotel moved all the guests out, taking more than 400

rooms out of service at the height of the summer vacation season.

Gill said the intent of the picket was to undermine Local 5's strike

vote next week by showing disunity within the union. " Its a bogus picket

line, as simple as that, " said Gill. " The vast majority of the people out

there are not union members. "

Joe Espinoza, vice president and general manager of Team Clean, said, " There

were five managers out there, the rest were union members. "

No one on the picket line would identify himself to Pacific Business News.

Espinoza said the purpose of the picket is to say that the employees are

paying union dues and are not being represented by the union.

He said the union wants to " recapture " jobs Team Clean does at Hilton and

Sheraton and give them to hotel employees.

Gill replied, " I have no interest in closing Team Clean or keeping it alive,

I am interested in securing them [the workers] a living wage. We have

nothing against Team Clean. "

Ward, research analyst for Local 5, said the union would like to

eliminate subcontracting of jobs in the hotels, while offering the openings

to the same people who now do the worker through a subcontractor.

He said subcontracted workers are paid substantially less than the regularly

contracted hotel workers.

Gill said his predecessor negotiated Team Clean's current contract, and

admits it is not a very good one, adding, " We know we can't fix this by

negotiating with Team Clean, until we first negotiate with the hotel. "

Gill said Team Clean's reaction indicates to him that their management

thinks the union will successfully negotiate with Hilton and Sheraton on the

subcontracting issue.

Relations between Local 5 and the Hilton were strained this year even before

the closing of guest rooms in the Kalia Tower. In a break from previous

practice, Sheraton and Hilton insisted on separate contract talks and

requested contracts of uneven length.

The union concluded that a move to two contracts that expire in different

years was an attempt to dilute the power of organized labor, and has made a

point of sending the same negotiators with precisely the same bargaining

positions to talks with both hotel chains, who, incidentally, are using the

same lawyer to negotiate on their behalf.

Since the mold situation became public, the union initially indicated that

it and the Hilton management were cooperating on this health issue, but more

recently it has said Hilton management has taken several steps without

consulting with the union and has not been forthcoming with all the

information the union has requested.

Copyright 2002 American City Business Journals Inc.