Media Advisory: Kaiser Permanente Workers Day of Action on Oahu and Maui

UNITEHERE! Local 5

Media Advisory for September 24, 2021

Media Contact:

Bryant de Venecia

Cell Phone: (808) 546-0024

bdevenecia@5.unitehere.org

 

Kaiser Permanente Workers Day of Action on Oahu and Maui

Collective Bargaining Agreement between UNITE HERE Local 5 and Kaiser Permanente is set to expire September 30th

 

WHAT: Healthcare workers sign waving actions in front of Kaiser Permanente hospitals

 

WHERE: Oahu – Waipio Clinic (94-1480 Moaniani St, Waipahu)

Moanalua Hospital (3288 Moanalua Rd, Honolulu)

Maui – Wailuku Clinic (80 Mahalani St, Wailuku, HI 96793)

Maui Lani Clinic (55 Maui Lani Pkwy, Wailuku, HI 96793)

WHEN:  TODAY, September 24, 2021

Oahu – Waipio Clinic 11:30 AM – 2:00 PM

Moanalua Hospital 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Maui – Wailuku & Maui Lani Clinics 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

 

WHO: UNITE HERE Local 5 members at Kaiser Permanente. We will follow current COVID-19 protocols by social-distancing and limiting participants

 

WHY: The union contract for nearly 2,000 Kaiser Permanente workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 5 is set to expire September 30th. After months of negotiations, Kaiser Permanente has not addressed wage and staffing issues that hurt health care workers. Instead, the company is proposing a destructive wage system and ignoring short staffing issues.

 

Alexsis Crowell, an MA at the Honolulu Clinic Primary Care department shares, “Kaiser Permanente needs to provide fair wages and to address the staff problems. We’re constantly exhausted from our job; we feel like there’s not enough help. Kaiser needs to have our back because they always say we’re ʻohana, but I don’t feel like they’re treating us like family.”

 

Earlier this year, Kaiser Permanente announced that they are outsourcing dozens of local jobs to the California. In 2020, the company attempted to shut down departments in Wailuku clinic, which threatened the jobs of dozens of workers and health care access to the community.

 

The workers will sign wave with messages: “Defend Healthcare Workers” and “Safe Staffing Now”

Local 5 represents approximately 12,000 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, visit www.unitehere5.org.

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Housekeepers call on hotels to bring back daily room cleaning

Press release for September 10, 2021

Media Contact:

Bryant de Venecia

Cell Phone: (808) 546-0024

bdevenecia@5.unitehere.org

Housekeepers call on hotels to bring back daily room cleaning

(Honolulu) – Hotel housekeepers call on their employers to back daily room cleaning and other guest services so that workers can get back to work and guests can have a safe, quality vacation experience. Dozens of housekeepers passed out leaflets to hotel guests along Waikiki Beach, encouraging them to request daily room cleaning.

As hotel occupancies plummets as low as 38% and PEUC unemployment benefits expire, hotel housekeepers are worried about being furloughed. Many housekeepers haven’t been called back at all since March 2020. Thousands of jobs could be saved by reinstating daily room cleaning.

Ending daily room cleaning could eliminate 39% of all U.S. hotel housekeeping jobs and cost housekeepers—overwhelmingly women of color–$4.8 billion in annual lost wages.

Judith Ramirez, a housekeeper from Sheraton Waikiki shared, “We are all here, workers across departments from hotels all over Oahu, coming together to call on the hotels to bring back daily room cleaning. We’re out here leafleting, asking for support from the community and the travelers because eliminating daily housekeeping service hurts everyone. It’s bad for both the workers and the guests.”

Since housekeeping services turned into an opt-in only service, housekeepers are finding hotel room more dirty and harder to clean. Nely Reinante, a housekeeper at Hilton Hawaiian Village said, “It used to take 45 minutes to clean a check out room; now we do it for more than an hour. When I come home after my shift, my body is so sore that I just lay down for hours. I don’t have time for my family anymore because all my energy gets depleted from work, cleaning all these dirty rooms.”

Hotel workers will continue to urge state legislators and employers to do more to bring back guest services so that hospitality workers can get back to work safely. Other municipalities like San Francisco are mandating daily room cleaning at hotels.

Local 5 represents approximately 12,000 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, visit www.unitehere5.org.

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Thousands of Hawaii workers left scrambling after losing federal unemployment benefits

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Around 35,000 people statewide lost federal unemployment benefits over the holiday weekend. Now, many of the state’s unemployed aren’t sure what they will do as the pandemic drags on. (Read more)

Hotel housekeepers to leaflet Waikiki beach encouraging daily room cleaning

Media Advisory for September 9, 2021

Media Contact:

Bryant de Venecia

Cell Phone: (808) 546-0024

bdevenecia@5.unitehere.org

Hotel housekeepers to leaflet Waikiki beach encouraging daily room cleaning

Eliminating daily room cleaning means fewer housekeepers are brought back to work and tougher workloads for remaining housekeepers

WHAT: Hotel housekeepers pass out leaflets to hotel guests along Waikiki Beach to encourage them to request daily room cleaning

WHERE: Waikiki Beach, near the Duke Kahanamoku statue (near Kalakaua Ave. and Uluniu Ave.)

WHEN: Friday, September 10, 2021 (4:30pm – 5:30pm)

WHO: Dozens of UNITE HERE Local 5 hotel workers wearing red shirts and masks, socially distanced and passing out leaflets to hotel guests at the beach

WHY: Since many Hawaii hotels reopened in October 2020, the hotel industry has been cutting guest services so that fewer workers return to work. Daily room cleaning is an example of one guest service that has been eliminated, resulting in hundreds of Local 5 housekeepers not returning to work. Housekeepers who have returned to work are suffering from fatigue and stress because it is more difficult to clean a room that hasn’t been cleaned for several days, sometimes weeks.

As COVID cases increase and hotel occupancy plummets, housekeepers will be passing out leaflets to hotel guests along Waikiki Beach to encourage them to request daily room cleaning.

They also continue to urge state legislators and employers to do more to bring back guest services so that hospitality workers can get back to work safely. Other municipalities like San Francisco are mandating daily room cleaning at hotels.

In August, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint and notice of hearing against Hilton Hawaiian Village based on an unfair labor practice charge filed by UNITE HERE Local 5, alleging that the hotel  refused to provide the Union with documents backing up the hotels’ claim that eliminating daily room cleaning was partially due to guest preference.

Hotel guests have expressed on local and international news that they were “caught off guard by the lack of daily room cleaning” and frustrated that they have to do their own cleaning.

Local 5 represents approximately 12,000 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, visit www.unitehere5.org.

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Hotel Workers Union Concerned About Job Cuts and Tourism Slowdown

Travel bookings on the other side of this Labor Day holiday are said to be softening. September and October traditionally tend to be slower times in the visitor industry. And with COVID cases in the islands soaring, it is cause for concern for our economic recovery. Unite Here! Local Five is the union that represents a majority of hotel workers in Waikīkī and Kaiser Permanente. The Conversation spoke with Eric Gill, the union’s business manager, to discuss cut jobs and member concerns. Its members rallied over the Labor Day weekend. Its Kaiser Permanente members are currently negotiating a new working contract. Its current contract runs out at the end of September.

UNITEHERE! Local 5

Press release for September 6, 2021

 

Media Contact:

Bryant de Venecia

Cell Phone: (808) 546-0024

bdevenecia@5.unitehere.org

 

On Labor Day, labor unions call on employers and state to help workers

Employers have been using the pandemic as an excuse to cut jobs and state lawmakers have done little to address this

Photos and Video:

[LINK TO FB LIVE VIDEO]

 

(Honolulu) – Hospitality and healthcare workers organized live and virtual actions to commemorate Labor Day. Dozens of workers statewide joined a Facebook Live event hosted by UNITE HERE Local 5. Around 25 Kaiser Permanente workers sign waved in front of Kaiser’s Honolulu clinic to call on Kaiser to invest in patient care and healthcare workers.

Labor Day is supposed to commemorate workers and the American labor movement. But since the onset of COVID-19, employers have been using the pandemic as an excuse to cut jobs and state lawmakers have done little to address this.

PEUC benefits expired on Labor Day, affecting thousands of Hawaii workers who are still furloughed and will now receive hundreds of dollars less per week from unemployment. State lawmakers also allowed the eviction moratorium to expire.

Union members expressed that they feel left behind in the pandemic and want to push state lawmakers and employers to take care of workers—especially as COVID cases increase, hotel occupancy plummets, and employers continue to use the pandemic to cut jobs.

Local 5 called on union members to email Governor David Ige, Speaker of the House Scott Saiki, and Senate President Ron Kouchi to ask them to fund additional unemployment benefits and release a detailed plan on how the State will take care of workers

They also called on the community to stand with Kaiser Permanente workers by signing a petition calling on Kaiser to invest in patient care and healthcare workers. The union contract for nearly 2,000 Kaiser Permanente workers represented by Local 5 expires on September 30, 2021.

Stephanie Meredith, a Ward Clerk at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Hospital shared, “We did a sign waving action in front of Honolulu clinic to push Kaiser Permanente. We need better staffing to support healthcare workers as we provide the best patient care, especially now as the COVID cases are hitting our communities hard and impacting our healthcare heroes even harder. We have members working long shifts for 10 days straight—that is unacceptable.”

Mary Taboniar, a housekeeper at Hilton Hawaiian Village and a single mother of two shared, “The federal unemployment benefits ends today and we’re not getting any hours from work. I called the unemployment office and they told me that the only option is to look for other jobs. But what other jobs are out there other than minimum wage? That’s not enough to provide for our families. It’s time for our state leaders to step up and support Hawaii workers.”

Local 5 members also celebrated being Hawaii’s Best Union six years in a row and Local 5’s active response to the pandemic, which included securing healthcare coverage, rental assistance, filing for unemployment, and much more.

 

Local 5 represents approximately 12,000 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, visit www.unitehere5.org.

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