Local 142 of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that the four-year contract will produce immediate five per cent rises for non-tipped employees and 13 per cent rises in total over the full term of the agreement, with smaller rises for tipped employees. All employees will get fully-paid medical care and eight days’ paid holidays instead of the current three.
Since signing a unionisation petition in 2002, the ILWU claims that workers have endured mass firings and intimidation. It says that the owner of the Pacific Beach had tried to use the appointment of new management contractors as an excuse to take any contract talks back to the beginning and to make employees reapply for their jobs. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled, however, that there was effectively no difference between the new management company and the hotel itself.
Ongoing violations of federal labour law by the hotel led to the NLRB successfully applying for the second time to the US District Court for Hawaii for an injunction in 2011. The hotel’s appeal against this failed when in 2012 the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judgement and the US Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
ILWU International Vice President Wesley Furtado said: "We thank the many people and organizations from Hawaii and around the world who came forward to support this struggle."
ITF head of civil aviation and tourism Gabriel Mocho commented: “We congratulate the workers on this victory and hope that it sends a loud message to other hotels in the region.”
The hotel relies heavily on visitors from Japan, so the solidarity visits and networking support from Japanese unions and the endorsement of a boycott in 2008 by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation were invaluable. The Tokyo offices of the ITF and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association (IUF) were involved from the start of the struggle, with their dockers and tourism unions playing an important role. And in November 2012, the ITF’s tourism section conference approved a motion of support.
