VICTORY! Ilikai workers reach tentative agreement ending strike within hours
On Friday, March 8, Ilikai workers reached a tentative agreement with the company and settled the strike that began earlier that day. At 6 a.m. workers walked off the job and announced they would be going on strike after going more than five years without a new contract.
At the time, Ilikai workers made $8/hour less than other Waikiki hotel workers, and the Ilikai hotel had not brought back automatic daily guestroom cleaning, while the majority of other Waikiki hotels have. Additionally, Ilikai guestrooms are twice the size of an average hotel guestroom and all include full kitchens.
“We do the same work as other hotel workers in Waikiki. We deserve the same pay and the same standard as them,” said Pamela Balintona a housekeeper at the Ilikai hotel.
Highlights of the tentative agreement:
- Immediate wage increases that bring Ilikai workers up to standard with other Waikiki hotel workers
- Immediate restoration of automatic daily room cleaning
- Housekeeping workload improvements
- Premium hourly increases for Bellman
- Improvements to meal & transit pass subsidies
- A process for dealing with newly introduced technologies
- Retirement with dignity
“We’ve been fighting for six years to show that all of us workers at the Ilikai Hotel are not secondclass citizens, and today we finally won that fight,” said Merlinda Castro, housekeeper at Ilikai Hotel. “So many of us housekeepers are women who work hard every day to provide for our families so it means even more to me that we won a fair contract today on international woman’s day.”
*On Tuesday, February 20, 100% voted YES to ratify their contract.
Read and watch the news coverage at the links below:
KITV: Ilikai Hotel workers settle new contract on International Women’s Day
Star Advertiser: Ilikai Hotel workers reach tentative deal with company
Hawaii News Now: Unionized workers, Ilikai Hotel reach deal after hours-long strike
