Marriott workers strike for higher wages

In Hawaii’s largest hotel strike in nearly 30 years, 2,700 Unite Here Local 5 hotel workers from five Marriott-operated hotels in Waikiki and on Maui walked off the job Monday, demanding better wages and job security.

“This company that we work for makes billions of dollars but still their workers have to work two to three jobs and that’s unfair,” said Jowenna Ellazar, 27, a housekeeper at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani. “We want to be able to enjoy our lives too, spend time with our kids, raise our kids and not have somebody else raise them for us.”

“We need fair wages to be able to live here in Hawaii comfortably,” she added.

Workers from the Sheraton Waikiki, The Royal Hawaiian, Westin Moana Surfrider, Sheraton Princess Kaiulani and Sheraton Maui began picketing early Monday as contract negotiations, which started in June, have reached an impasse.

The hotels affected by the strike are owned by Kyo-ya Hotels &Resorts and operated by Marriott.

In response to the strike, Kyo-ya said it implemented contingency plans to ensure operations run smoothly at the five properties.

“There have been some adjustments to staffing levels and services being offered at our properties. We have notified our guests and business partners of the situation and are providing them with ongoing updates,” the company said in an e-mailed statement Monday.

Kyo-ya added that it is committed to continuing “our good faith bargaining and hope to resolve this situation in a timely manner.”

Hotel guests noticed the drop in service.

“We expected to be pampered. Basically it’s bare bones,” said Royal Hawaiian guest David Lorengo, 57, of Seattle. Lorengo and his wife, Cindy Johnsey, 65, have stayed at the luxury hotel four times and were disappointed not to attend the hotel’s luau, which was canceled. “It definitely changed the experience,” Lorengo said.

Skipper Kendrick, 72, of Hurst, Texas, a guest at the Sheraton Waikiki, said he got a “free breakfast because of lack of staff.”

“The hotel handled it very well, better than others,” Kendrick said. “I haven’t been back to the room, but at home I use towels for more than a day.”

Chinatsu Masui, 50, of Tokyo, said she and her husband had planned to spend their last evening in Hawaii at the Sheraton hotel bar.

“We wanted to go to the Rum Fire Bar, but it’s closed,” she said.

Angie Stoehr, 38, a visitor from Frisco, Texas, who was passing through the Sheraton said, “This is my first time to Hawaii, and I’m surprised to see people striking, especially in front of a really nice hotel.”

The Hawaii hotel workers were part of a nationwide strike totaling eight cities with approximately 7,700 Marriott hotel workers from 23 hotels. The strikes on the mainland began last week in Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, San Diego and Detroit where workers are using the slogan: “One Job Should be Enough.”

Ellazar, the Princess Kaiulani housekeeper and a mother of two children ages 1 and 4, said, “We believe in ‘one job should be enough,’ so we’re fighting for ‘one job should be enough’ to be able to live here in Hawaii comfortably, to be able to take care of our families with just one job.”

Local 5 President Gemma Weinstein said workers will strike for as “long as it takes. We want to get good wages, medical, pension, job security.”

Negotiations hit a stalemate after the unions proposed a wage increase of $3 an hour and the company countered with a proposal of a 70-cent increase an hour to be divided between wages and benefits.

“That’s not enough. That’s not enough to live in Hawaii. Everything is so expensive right now. And for them to offer the workers 70 cents for everything, that’s ridiculous. These workers deserve more. They work hard,” she said.

Housekeepers, groundskeepers, bellmen, food and beverage and front desk staff are among the hotel workers on strike.

Weinstein said, “A majority of our members work two jobs, three jobs. They don’t have enough time to see their kids. They don’t have enough time to rest. When they retire, their bodies buss up already.”

Dozens of workers, some with bullhorns and drums, picketed at the loading dock of the Sheraton Waikiki and The Royal Hawaiian as well as near the parking structure entrances where they chanted, “The workers united, we’ll never be defeated! The people united, we’ll never be defeated!”

Ellazar, who lives in Mililani, said she earns $22.14 an hour as a housekeeper at the Princess Kaiulani where she has worked for the past three years. She said housekeepers are overloaded with work. “We bust our butts cleaning these rooms, trying to keep it to standard but always being told that it’s not good enough,” she said.

The company, she added, is “squeezing us so hard, making us do 15 rooms and telling us it’s not good enough.”

Mark Kamahele, 59, a groundskeeper for the Marriott-operated hotels in Waikiki for 18 years, said he’s concerned the company is outsourcing jobs, including reservations, finance and groundskeepers. “Right now, my job is being outsourced,” he said.

Kamahele wants contract language that protects these jobs. “We need that language to protect us from subcontracting.”

Union spokeswoman Paola Rodelas said management has found a way to subcontract work despite contract language added back in 2002 to end subcontracting if work can be done in-house.