(Honolulu Star-Advertiser) – By Andrew Gomes. A Boston-based nonprofit backed by two national lenders is offering no-fee home mortgages with below-market interest rates for Hawaii residents at a free five-day event that starts today in Honolulu.
(Honolulu, HI) – UNITE HERE Local 5, Hawaii’s Best Union three years in a row and one of the largest private sector unions in the state, is endorsing community advocate and longtime Local 5 ally Ikaika Hussey, who is running against incumbent Carol Fukunaga in the Honolulu City Council District 6 race.
“We are very excited to support Ikaika Hussey, who has been a friend of Local 5 for many years,” says Joli Tokusato, a Local 5 member and Ilikai Hotel worker.
Tokusato also ran for City Council against Carol Fukunaga during the last election in 2014, winning nearly 6,000 votes in the primary election but not quite enough to win the seat. “Running against an incumbent who has held political office since 1978 was a challenge. But as I went door to door talking to voters, I got a sense that people are tired of career politicians. Ikaika has been going door to door since August, talking and listening to the people and sharing his vision for a better Hawai’I,” she said.
Local 5 member Lydia Agustin, who is a housekeeper at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and a Kalihi resident in City Council District 6, expressed strong support for Hussey: “I’m voting for Ikaika Hussey because he is for the community, not for himself. He is for working families. Most of our union contracts expire this year, and we’re calling on big hotel companies like Marriott to make one job enough to live on. Ikaika is joining us in our call that one job should be enough.”
Over 10,000 Local 5 members in the hospitality, healthcare, and food service industries have union contracts expiring this year, starting on June 30. Over 7,600 of them are workers from 20 hotels across Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and Hawai’i Island.
Local 5 represents approximately 11,000 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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(Honolulu Star-Advertiser) – By Allison Schaefers. Organized labor took a beating on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., but you wouldn’t have known that by the show of force exhibited by the 1,500 Unite Here Local 5 hotel workers who kicked off bargaining talks with a rally Wednesday in Waikiki.
(The Maui News) – With their contract with the Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa set to end, union members from Unite Here! Local 5 are joined by retirees and supporters for a sign-waving event along Honoapiilani Highway in Lahaina near the Lahaina Cannery Mall on Wednesday afternoon.
UNITEHERE! Local 5
Press release for June 27, 2018
Media Contact:
Paola Rodelas
Office Phone: (808) 941-2141 ext. 270
Cell Phone: (808) 333-4782
prodelas@5.unitehere.org
Over 1,500 Local 5 members and community supporters show unity and strength amidst the Janus decision, demanding that One Job Should Be Enough
View tweets from actions worldwide: #1job #UNITEHERE
(Honolulu, HI) – Over 1,500 members of UNITE HERE Local 5 – the union representing over 11,000 hotel, healthcare, and food service workers – were joined by community supporters in a march and rally in Waikiki to demand that one job should be enough to live in Hawai’i and keep up with the cost of living.
Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision on Janus v. AFSCME that rigs the system like never before against working-class families. But Local 5 remains defiant, moving forward with its plans to march down Waikiki.
“The Janus decision is another attack on working families by the Trump administration—just like the family separation happening at the border and yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling supporting the Muslim ban. It shows that the Trump administration and the corporations are scared when working people are united and organizing. So our response is to organize and come together. And we did that today at our One Job Should Be Enough march and rally,” says Gemma Weinstein, President of UNITE HERE Local 5.
Governor David Ige, who also released a statement today expressing his disappointment with the Janus decision, spoke at the rally. He told a cheering crowd of Local 5 members that he “shares their dream that one job should be enough.”
The march in Waikiki was part of the launch of a national campaign to raise standards in the hotel industry with demonstrations led by thousands of union and non-union Marriott workers in eight cities across the United States, including San Francisco, Boston, San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia and San Jose. Carrying the message “One Job Should Be Enough,” Marriott workers are calling on their employer, the largest and most profitable hotel company in the world, to use its leadership in the global hotel industry to create jobs that are enough to live on.
Around 100 Maui residents who work at Sheraton Maui and Kaanapali Beach Club sign waved and demanded that one job should be enough
Around 100 people on Maui also took action and sign waved in front of Lahaina Cannery Mall. “I’m a single mom of 3 kids and I work two full-time jobs as a phone operator at two hotels. I am fighting for this contract to make these jobs good enough so that I can work one job and spend time with my kids. I also don’t want them to struggle with two jobs like me,” says Laurie DeCoite, who has worked at the Sheraton Maui’s PBX department for 30 years.
Over 10,000 workers have union contracts expiring in 2018. Over 7,600 of them work in 20 hotels on Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and Hawai’i Island. Nearly 4,000 work at Marriott hotels. Local 5 members have their first contract bargaining session with Marriott tomorrow on June 28.
Local 5 represents approximately 11,000 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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(Honolulu Star-Advertiser) – By Gordon Pang. A proposal for two more 400-foot-tall buildings next to the Pacific Guardian Tower at Kapiolani Boulevard and Keeaumoku Street is the latest project in the area to seek approval from the Honolulu City Council to build higher than currently allowed.