Column: A truly sustainable Hawaii means one job should be enough

The Sierra Club, Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action and 350Hawaii.org envision a truly sustainable future for Hawaii. This is why we work hard to protect Hawaii’s natural environment. This is also why we stand with the members of Unite Here/Local 5 on strike for better wages, benefits and job security.

We stand with the members of Local 5 because everyone deserves the dignity of a living wage. We firmly believe that with the dignity of a living wage for everyone comes the guarantee of a living planet for all of, as well.

Looking at Hawaii’s economic ecosystem with the eyes of an ecologist, it becomes easy to see the connections between environmental issues and other social problems. The same profit-logic that drives corporations to cut costs by paying poverty wages also drives them to divert our streams, pollute our oceans and stuff our landfills. We cannot survive in a system that externalizes the expensive of taking good care of our people and our planet, just so that a few can enjoy higher profits.

Many Local 5 members, like many of us throughout Hawaii, work two jobs (or more) just to pay basic bills. The visitor industry has succeeded in marketing Hawaii to others so well that it is now hard for local families to afford living here. The cost of living in Hawaii is so high that people are forced into poor choices just to make ends meet every month. These include commuting long distances because it is cheaper to drive a gas car than to buy a home close to work; eating highly processed foods because locally sourced, healthy food is expensive; and using excessive fossil-fuel energy because the upfront costs of energy-efficient appliances, solar panels and electric cars are too high when living paycheck to paycheck.

Not having a more fair share of the profits the hotel industry makes off our land and labor means we do not have the option to invest in ourselves and our planet in ways that make our lives more sustainable.

Kyo-ya, the owners of Marriott properties in Hawaii that are on strike, have a moral obligation and the financial capacity to help their workers make these investments. Globally, Marriott hotels raked in $3.2 billion last year. Their profit margin has increased so much since the recession that Marriott is now worth 279 percent more than in 2007.

Marriott is the largest and most highly valued hotel chain in the world. It is, by all measures, wealthy. That wealth is due in no small part to the labor of the thousands of hotel workers who help to create a clean, enjoyable experience for visitors to the Hawaiian islands. It is not too much to expect the multibillion-dollar hotel industry to share its profits more equitably with the workers that make its business profitable.

The benefit of higher wages for these hotel workers is expected to have a positive ripple effect on wages throughout the visitor industry and beyond for all working families. As the backbone of Hawaii’s primary industry, hotel worker wages set the bar for wages in other sectors of Hawaii’s economy. With higher wages, more money will be circulating in our local economy, which also means more resources available through taxes for important programs.

We believe that when one job is enough, workers will have more time and resources to invest in their families, in civics, and yes, to enjoy and protect Hawaii’s environment.

There is a profound connection between how we treat each other and how we treat the environment we all rely on. That is why we urge all of you to stand with our neighbors on strike for a living wage. Together, we can have a stronger, more just, and truly sustainable Hawaii.

Marti Townsend is director of Sierra Club of Hawaii; Anne Frederick is executive director of Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action; Brodie Lockard is with 350hawaii.org.