FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 9, 2025
MEDIA ADVISORY
Healthcare workers to rally at Hale Nani Rehab & Nursing Center following contract expiration
When & Where: Friday, January 9 from 12:30-2 p.m. and 3:30-5 p.m. at Hale Nani Rehab & Nursing Center (1677 Pensacola St.)
Who: Hale Nani workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 5 (Local 5) including certified nursing assistants and workers in the dietary, maintenance, recreation, and housekeeping departments
What: Rally and sign waving calling on Hale Nani management to settle a fair contract that restores the staffing levels and services that have been cut.
Why: Over 200 healthcare workers at the Hale Nani Rehab & Nursing Facility (Hale Nani) are working without a contract after their collective bargaining agreement expired on December 31, 2025. Since the facility changed ownership in 2023, Hale Nani workers report that significant staffing and service cuts have led to heavy workloads and impacted their ability to deliver the same quality of patient care.
“I have worked at Hale Nani for 19 years and I have always enjoyed caring for our patients, but under this new management I am burnt out from being overworked and understaffed,” said Alice Ereno, Certified Nursing Assistant, 19 years of service. “Having all of my shifts cut from 8 hours to 6 hours means I have to rush to help the same amount of patients in a shorter amount of time. I should not have to rush bathing, feeding, and tending to the kupuna that call Hale Nani their home away from home.”
In January 2023, an affiliate company of Welltower, the world’s largest healthcare Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), purchased Hale Nani from Avalon.
“As front-line health care workers, we provide hands-on, direct daily care for approximately 280 patients every day. We clean, bathe, change, feed, assist patients with using the restroom, monitor vital signs and assist in the recovery and rehabilitation of patients,” said Cade Watanabe, Financial Secretary-Treasurer. “So when management cuts our work – for example from 8 to 6 hour workdays and chronically under staffs, we are forced to do more in less time for our vulnerable patients & residents. We look forward to engaging further with Volare & Hale Nani’s management team on these critical issues so that we can move forward with a new contract that puts our patients & workers first.”
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About UNITE HERE Local 5
Local 5 represents 10,000 workers throughout Hawai‘i 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.
