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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Local 5 union president Gemma Weinstein reacts with fellow hotel workers after ratification of a new contract negotiation on Nov. 27 at the Ala Moana Hotel. Hotel owner Kyo-ya offered striking hotel workers $6.13 per hour in pay and benefit increases over four years in a new contract today that ended a 51-day-old strike.
Read more: Hotel workers ratify contract to end 51-day strike.
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The contract settlement between hotel workers on Oahu and Maui and Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts did more than end 51 days of noisy picketing. It covered some of the thornier issues facing Hawaii’s No. 1 industry: provisions to negotiate the introduction of automation; protections against sexual advances by guests, including the installation of panic buttons for employees who work alone in guest rooms; a fund to help employees not only with child care, but with elder care — a growing need.
Over the next four years, workers also will receive higher pay and benefits — less than they wanted, but more than they were originally offered. It’s a compromise that both sides can cheer.
Memorial still closed as Pearl Harbor rebrands
It’s understandable that the National Park Service is seeking to rebrand its museums and memorials in Pearl Harbor — including the USS Arizona Memorial, one of Hawaii’s most visited attractions. It literally will take an act of Congress to remove the Arizona Memorial from the current World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, and establish it separately as the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, to better define its mission and to improve fundraising. It’s beyond ironic, though, that there’s such long-view reverence for the USS Arizona’s value and worth, even as the iconic memorial sits closed to visitors in the here and now. It has been off-limits since May, when a docking platform failed. Auwe.