LIHUE — Thousands of hotel workers on Kauai and Oahu went out on strike on Sunday morning over concerns about wages, proper staffing and fair workloads.
The UNITE HERE Local 5 hotel workers walkout was orchestrated in the middle of the tourism-heavy Labor Day weekend holiday. The strike, which began at 4 a.m. on Sunday, is expected to last three days.
The strike impacts one hotel on Kauai — Sheraton Kauai Resort — and seven hotels in Waikiki.
The seven hotels in Waikiki are Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa, Moana Surfrider — a Westin Resort Spa, The Royal Hawaiian, A Luxury Collection Resort, Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, Sheraton Waikiki and Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa.
“We have not seen this many of our members go on strike in over 30 years, and we don’t take that fact lightly. Today’s (Sunday’s) action at eight of our Hawaii hotels affecting more than 5,000 Local 5 members employed by Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott (and) Kyo-ya show that the issues we’re striking over are not just isolated to one hotel or company,” said Local 5 Financial-Secretary Treasurer Cade Watanabe in a statement.
“Today’s (Sunday’s) action demonstrates our deep commitment to these islands we all call home, to our guests who deserve nothing less than to experience our ‘aloha’ so they keep coming back, and to our families — we need tourism to work for us locals and not just our mainland bosses.
The Local 5 walkout is the largest strike since 1990 when union workers from 11 hotels went on a 22-day strike. In 2018, some 2,700 Local 5 workers at five Marriott-managed hotels went on a 51-day strike that ended with the ratification of a contract that gave union members up to $6.13 an hour in pay and benefit increases over four years.
Thousands of other UNITE HERE workers in five U.S. cities also called strikes early Sunday morning.
•••
Star-Advertiser reporter Allison Schaefers contributed to this report.
