Ilikai Hotel workers reach tentative deal with company
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hotel workers represented by Local 5 picketed the Ilikai Hotel during a one-day work stoppage today.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Ilikai employees picketed during a rally outside the Ilikai Hotel on Sept. 4.
After nearly six years without a contract and a partial day strike, Ilikai Hotel workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 5 and the company reached a tentative agreement.
The strike, which began at 6 a.m. today, ended late this afternoon after the parties reached a tentative agreement that would include “immediate wage increases that bring Ilikai workers up to standard with other Waikiki hotel workers.”
According to a news release issued by Local 5, the agreement also includes:
>>Immediate restoration of automatic daily room cleaning
>>Housekeeping workload improvements
>>Premium hourly increases for bellman
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>>Improvements to meal and transit pass subsidies
>>A process for dealing with newly introduced technologies
>>Retirement with dignity
“We’ve been fighting for six years to show that all of us workers at the Ilikai Hotel are not second-class citizens, and today we finally won that fight,” said Merlinda Castro, housekeeper at Ilikai Hotel. “So many of us housekeepers are women who work hard every day to provide for our families so it means even more to me that we won a fair contract today on International Women’s Day.”
>> PHOTOS: Ilikai workers reach tentative agreement
The workers will return to work later this evening and Saturday morning.
The workers say that they had been paid, on average, $8 an hour less than their counterparts at other Waikiki hotels.
The company did not return calls and emails seeking comment during and after the strike.
