Reminder to request a mail ballot for the Local 5 Officer Election, if needed, by Fri. 8/20/21 before 12:00pm by contacting DOL Election Supervisor Gary Gray: 808-541-2937 or at HON-ElectionSupervisor@dol.gov. Your dues must be paid up! Click here for info on paying dues.
Local 5 members on Oahu: HARIETT is partnering with the the University of Hawaii Community College System in a Certified Nurse Aide Training program.
The program is open to Local 5 members, as well as their family members, who have been impacted by the pandemic and remain unemployed or under-employed.
The program is free, with a paid internship with the possibility of employment once you have completed. They are also offering up to $750 a month childcare subsidy.
If you or a family member is interested, text/call James Hardway: 808-282-7859.
Sheraton Waikiki and Royal Hawaiian workers can once again enjoy fresh, hot cooked meals and more in the Mokihana cafeteria–first time since the closure and re-opening of the hotels. 
William Tsang, a timekeeper/ receiving clerk at Moana Surfrider, finally received a settlement for his grievance that he filed because management tried to give his job to security. The settlement included all health & welfare/pension contributions for the hours he would’ve worked, as well as sick/vacation accruals.
William said, “I am so happy we all stuck together and helped each other through the layoff. When the hotel reopened, we fought together to get our jobs back. That’s how we win!” #UnionAdvantage
You must email (preferable) or phone Department of Labor Election Supervisor Gary Gray for a replacement ballot.
Members should provide this info and put “ballot request” in the Email subject line.
Request must be received no later than 12:00pm on Friday, August 20, 2021. Only the DOL can mail replacement ballots.
By Aina Iglesias – Front Desk Agent, Doubletree Hilton Alana Waikiki
Are you interested in writing for UNITE HERE Local 5? We also offer writing training. Contact Paola Rodelas.
The pandemic made it clear that our basic human rights are under attack. The greediness of big corporations, the lack of support from both the federal and local governments, and the racial violence against black and non-black POC communities became very apparent.
In Hawaii, we see tourism back to normal with hotel occupancies nearing 100%, while only 64% of our industry is back to work. We experienced how difficult it was to receive help from our governments when applying for unemployment or getting stimulus checks.
We witnessed police shootings that killed a young Micronesian child, Iremamber Sykap, and a black man, Lindani Myeni, who were both found unarmed.
We are at the height of injustices everywhere, but we are also at the height of a revolution with people ready to fight back. Our union has never stopped fighting. During the pandemic, we fight twice as hard.
During the 2020 Presidential and Georgia senate run-off elections, I was one of 3,000 UNITE HERE workers who knocked on doors supporting candidates like now-President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. These elections were critical to protect our existing rights from Trump and the Republican-majority Senate who constantly attacked the working class and people of color.
To continue our union’s efforts to expand voting rights, we joined Black Voters Matter in the 2021 Freedom Ride to emphasize our support for the For the People Act, which would allow same-day voter registration and mandatory early voting for two weeks for all states, encourage mail-in voting, and more. If passed, this would override hundreds of years of restrictions to hinder workers, people of color, and the LGBTQ community from voting.
On June 17, 2021, four UNITE HERE buses left Phoenix, Arizona for a seven-day Freedom Ride to Washington D.C., where we rallied in support of the For the People Act.
A legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, it was necessary for us to join Black Voters Matter in the Freedom Ride. Learning about black struggles and black resistance from revolutionaries like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Angela Davis taught all the freedom riders to become better leaders in our communities.
The Freedom Ride allowed non-black POC like me to absorb all the information about African American history, respect the space, empathize with those who still grieve, and come in solidarity with those who fight.
Having this perspective as a leader at the Doubletree Alana hotel helps me understand workers’ situations beyond our workplace. Race, ethnicity, gender, class, and disability have shaped the way we live—these daily struggles are the reasons why we continue to fight.
The rich and the Republican party saw our union victories to turn Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona as threats. They are now pushing hard to make sure black and brown working class folks do not get to vote.
Silencing people of color from having a voice in democracy is racist because that leaves only affluent white Americans to decide the future of the United States. We must demand to have our voices heard.
In Hawaii, we see videos on social media of racism and racial violence against black and brown communities in the mainland and claim it does not exist here. Unfortunately, racism exists and is very apparent in Hawaii. The amount of Native Hawaiians and Micronesians imprisoned or killed by the police is racist.
The thousands of unemployed Hawaii workers—majority immigrants of color—who are still out of work as tourism skyrockets in our state is a result of corporate greed. At full occupancies, hotels pocket millions of dollars by not bringing services back, while workers struggle to make ends meet and hope to be recalled back to work.
With all that we face, the last thing we want taken away is our voice. We deserve real national voting rights legislation. We need to end voter suppression so we can put people in elected office who will help us end racial violence and corporate greed.
Are you interested in writing for UNITE HERE Local 5? We also offer writing training. Contact Paola Rodelas.