Unite Here Local 5 has reached an agreement with Hilton for a two-year contract at Hilton Hawaiian Village that is expected to end months of negotiations between the parties.

Some 1,800 Hilton Hawaiian Village union workers will vote on whether to ratify the agreement over the next weeks. If approved, the agreement means that Hilton Hawaiian Village will resume daily cleaning of guest rooms, a key bargaining issue since the pandemic when Hilton eliminated daily housekeeping at most of its properties in the Americas.

Eric Gill, financial secretary-treasurer of Unite Here Local 5, said in a statement Saturday, “We are proud to announce a breakthrough in our two-year campaign to defend Hawaii’s hotel serv­ice standards.”

Contracts at three-fourths of the 26 hotels statewide that Local 5 represents are expired or expiring soon. Collective bargaining agreements between Local 5 and the big hotel companies —Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott/Kyo-ya — expired June 30.

Just last month hundreds of Local 5 union workers rallied in front of Hilton Hawaiian Village in protest of work conditions, especially Hilton’s housekeeping policy. Securing an agreement with Hilton so quickly could mean that this bargaining season ends on a more upbeat note than Local 5’s last wave of major bargaining, which was settled in November 2018 after a 51-day strike by 2,700 Marriott/ Kyo-ya workers.

Local 5 said the return of housekeeping at Hilton Hawaiian Village will secure hundreds of housekeeping jobs and restore a key element of quality guest service. It said Hilton also has agreed to significantly increase contributions to bolster the Union’s Health and Welfare Fund reserves. Generous increases in wages and pension contributions also are part of the contract.

Local 5 said thousands of hotel workers were at risk of losing their health care coverage after they were furloughed in 2020. Local 5 extended the coverage for thousands of union members, depleting the union’s health and welfare reserves.

Gill said, “We have reached this excellent two-year agreement with Hilton that addresses the most critical issues facing hotel workers as tourism recovers from the pandemic. Local 5 was able to reach this agreement because of the militancy and strong organization of Hilton workers, and because Local 5 participated in coordinated bargaining efforts over the past two years with 15 other local unions and our international union.”

Since Hawaii’s larger hotels are often owned by real estate investment trusts and offshore owners, in recent years Local 5 has joined forces with Unite Here to bargain select issues with national chains. Unite Here represents about 100,000 hotel workers across the U.S. and Canada. Some 10,500 Local 5 union members work at Hawaii hotels, down by about 1,000 from before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Local 5 said it will resume negotiations with other hotel companies with a goal of reaching an agreement based on the package that Hilton Hawaiian Village workers received.

Marianne Codiamat, a Hilton Hawaiian Village housekeeper for 34 years, said in a statement Saturday, “Since the pandemic started, daily room cleaning is one of the services that these big hotel companies cut off. Hilton was no exception. Housekeeping is the largest department in most hotels, so cutting back this service affects the jobs of thousands of housekeepers. We did countless actions, petitions, rallies, delegations, we also asked our government leaders to help us get our jobs back. Today, finally, we are victorious.”