HONOLULU—A ruling by the Hawaii Labor Relations Board orders Del Monte Fresh Produce (Hawaii) to pay additional severance and medical benefits to eligible former employees of Del Monte. The workers lost their jobs in January 2007 when the Floridabased company permanently closed pineapple operations on Oahu.

The March 21, 2007 ruling by the Hawaii Labor Relations Board (HLRB) was the result of unfair labor practice complaints filed in August 2006 by the workers’ union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142 (ILWU). The ILWU complaints charged Del Monte Fresh Produce with failing to bargain in good faith between February 2006 and July 2006, after the company first announced they would cease Hawaii pineapple operations in December 2008.

The duty to bargain in good faith is required by the Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 377. The Hawaii law is patterned after the US National Labor Relations Act which states in Section 1 of the Act:

ILWU Local President Fred Galdones answers Del Monte workers’ questions about many topics, including severance, medical coverage, and unemployment benefits at a meeting held at the Kunia Gym.

It is declared to be the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce and to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when they have occurred by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.

Both laws impose a mutual obligation on the union and employer to bargain collectively in good faith.

On November 17, 2006, three months after the ILWU filed its unfair labor practice complaint, Del Monte Fresh Produce announced it would close immediately, two years ahead of schedule.

Remedy ordered by Board 
The three-member Hawaii Labor Relations Board was unanimous in its conclusion that Del Monte Hawaii did not bargain in good faith. In a thorough and well-reasoned 22-page document, the Board laid out their findings of the facts, their conclusions of law, and their orders to remedy the situation.

The Board ordered Del Monte to pay each eligible worker an additional severance allowance based on a closure date of December 2008. Workers had already received severance benefits based on their years of service to January 22, 2007. The additional severance would amount to about 15 days of pay or over $1,600 for a Grade VI worker earning $13.66 an hour.

The collective bargaining agreement with the ILWU provides workers classified as “Regulars” a severance benefit of 8 days at the current rate of pay for every year of service with the company. For example, a worker earning $14 an hour with 10 years of seniority would receive a severance allowance of about $8,900. The money is intended to help support workers as they seek new jobs.

The Board further concluded Del Monte’s bad faith bargaining resulted in the loss of over two years of medical coverage for eligible workers and their families. The opinion by the Board’s majority stated: “Health insurance often stands as the last barrier between families and poverty or tragedy in the [face] of medical emergencies . . . It is difficult, if not impossible, for the Board to calculate the damages that flowed as a result of Del Monte’s bad faith bargaining of health insurance. But it would be cruel and unfair to not try to address the effects of the violation.”

The Board’s remedy to the loss of medical coverage was to order the union and company to reopen negotiations on the single issue of providing at least 12 months of extended medical coverage to workers and their families who have not yet acquired insurance.

Negotiations concluded in May and eligible workers are being contacted about their interest in restoring coverage to February 2008. “For those workers who have no medical plan, the HLRB’s decision goes a long way to correct the injustice of Del Monte’s bad faith bargaining,” said Fred Galdones, ILWU Local 142 President. “We’re hopeful that all former Del Monte workers will soon be reemployed and can put this ordeal behind them.” ◆

Over 350 workers filled Kunia Gym for a meeting held by the ILWU in January 2007 to provide information on the closure of Del Monte Fresh Produce (Hawaii).