Today, over 2,500 Waikiki hotel workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 5 (Local 5) voted by an overwhelming majority to ratify a new contract at five Marriott-operated hotels including the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, Sheraton Waikiki, Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort, and the Westin Moana Surfrider. Ratification votes are scheduled for two more Marriott-operated hotels on Wednesday, November 13 for the Sheraton Maui and Thursday, November 14 for the Sheraton Kauai.
Photos available for download here
This comes one week after over 1,800 Hilton Hawaiian Village workers ratified their new contract, ending a 40-day strike at Hawai‘i’s largest hotel. Seven of the eight Hawai‘i hotels that were involved in the historic 3-day hotel strike over Labor Day Weekend have now settled their contracts except for the Hyatt Regency Waikiki where approximately 500 hotel are still working without a contract and could strike at any time.
“For 40 days, Hilton Hawaiian Village workers led all of Local 5. Their willingness to step-up and strike set a historic new standard for hotel workers, and without their sacrifice we would not have been able to secure similar agreements with Kyo-ya & Marriott,” said Cade Watanabe, Financial Secretary-Treasurer. “These agreements achieve our major goals – wages that help us get ahead and not just get by, job security, and a commitment from our employers to address workload and staffing concerns that have a direct impact on our guests. More importantly, hotel workers are proving the power we possess in making our state’s number one industry work–not just for our owners and operators but for us locals too.”
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About UNITE HERE Local 5
Local 5 represents 10,000 workers throughout Hawaii who work in the hospitality, health care and food service industries and is an affiliate of UNITE HERE, an international union that represents over 250,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada. For more information go to unitehere5.org
