WAILEA, Maui—“No contract, no peace,” is the loud and clear message union members are sending to their bosses as they begin contract talks with Grand Wailea Resort & Spa management. Contract talks have only just begun but already members have held one rally and are planning more demonstrations during the busy holiday season. The unit’s negotiating committee purposely allowed the old contract to expire without an extension. With no contract in effect, workers are free to picket, wave signs, or strike the hotel.

MEDICARE/Prescription drugs— The Senate passed the prescription drug conference report. The legislation will subsidize employment based plans up to 28 percent of the costs of enrollees between $250 and $5,000 in spending. Employment based plans get no help for catastrophic costs. Please see the fact sheet (below right) that outlines just how bad the conference report is. Senator Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) voted wrong on the issue. In the House, Rep. David Wu (D-OR) voted wrong. All other West Coast Democrats were “right” on the issue.

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the resort workers in what is only the second round of negotiations. The bad treatment by management goes back to the beginning—December 1998—when the hotel’s new owners, the KSL Recreation Group, bought the hotel for half of its construction cost after the banks foreclosed on Japanese developer Takeshi Sekiguchi.

The term “rank-and-file” is defined as “those who form the major portion of any group or organization, excluding the leaders and officers.” The ILWU is a “rank-and-file” union because the membership is given the power to run and govern their union. The members elect the officers. The members set the policies and programs of the union, and the elected officers are bound to follow those policies and implement those programs.

The Union continues a strategy of targeting and focusing additional resources for mobilizing members for selected negotiations—particularly in the hotel industry.

A new State law, the Uniform Arbitration Act, provides for prearbitration conferences if the collective bargaining agreement is silent. These agreements should be changed to specifically state that a pre-hearing conference is only allowed by mutual consent.

The ILWU has a proud tradition of rank-and-file members believing in the union and willing to fight for it. Members who understood and were committed to our slogan, “An Injury to One is an Injury to All."

The ILWU is a democratic, rankand-file union that is built on the conviction that working people are fully capable of acquiring all the skills needed to run their own union. In addition, rank-and-file democracy and control of the ILWU requires an educated and informed membership and unit and full-time officers who get the support and training they need to do the work of the union. This is why ILWU Local 142 has run its own education program since 1946 that focuses on developing the skills and knowledge of union officers and members.

the Claremont Resort is embroiled in a major labor dispute with its workers, featuring picket lines, early morning rallies at various times from dawn to dusk, and a boycott endorsed by political, religious, and community leaders throughout the Bay area.”

Learn more about the dispute by clicking the links above. http:// www.boycottclaremontresort.org/

HONOLULU—Pineapple members on Oahu and Maui are preparing to return to the bargaining table in January 2003.

Being a member of the ILWU runs in the family for thousands of people in Hawaii.