Employees at the Princeville Resort on Kauai’s North Shore recently voted overwhelmingly in favor of their first union contract. Just a few months earlier, in December 2007, Princeville Resort employees voted in a federally-supervised election to unionize with the ILWU Local 142

PRINCEVILLE, Kauai—The union contract was completed just in time to provide workers with job security, seniority rights, and medical benefits while the hotel closes for a seven month face lift.

As a union member, you have the right to ask for a union representative in any disciplinary meeting with management.

Weingarten Rights refers to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that an employee has a right to a union representative during an investigatory interview which might lead to disciplinary action. The employee must ASK for representation!

Rule 1. The employee must make a clear request for a union steward before or during the interview and cannot be punished for making this request.

A long awaited decision by the National Labor Relations Board has brought Pacific Beach Hotel workers one step closer to justice.

The labor board’s Region 20 director issued a complaint against HTH Corporation on August 29, 2008, charging the company with numerous and serious violations of US labor law. HTH owns the Pacific Beach Hotel in Waikiki and the Pagoda Hotel on Rycroft Street, mauka of the Ala Moana Center.

WAIKOLOA, Hawaii—The Big Island played host to the 55th Annual ILWU Statewide Golf Tournament on August 30 and 31, 2008. Tournament committee members Wally Ishibashi Jr., Corinna Salmo, and Cassius Ching worked hard to make the tournament—which was held at the Waikoloa Beach Course—a success for all participating ILWU members and guests. If you like golf and would be interested in playing in next year’s tournament, call your Division or Business Agent. The tournament is always held on Labor Day weekend.

Check your doctor and hospital bills, especially large bills. If there’s anything you don’t understand, call your health care provider or health plan.

If you ate at a restaurant and ordered the hamburger dinner, you would question your bill if you were charged for a lobster and a bottle of wine. You should do the same review of your medical bills.

The Medical Billing Advocates of America found 80 percent of hospital bills contained some errors. The errors they found included:

• Duplicate billing - charging twice for the same service, drugs, or supplies. 

Big Island - 1,500 union members attended the Labor Day event at the Waimea Community Center on the Big Island. There was bingo for the older folk.

Japanese unions have pledged to step up their efforts to boycott the Pacific Beach Hotel and hotel owners, HTH Corporation.

They took this action after hearing from Local 142 Secretary-Treasurer Guy Fujimura and Virginia Recaido, one of the Pacific Beach Hotel union leaders fired by HTH Corporation who owns the Pacific Beach and Pagoda hotels. “The tremendous support from the Japanese unions was amazing and uplifting,” said Fujimura.

Make your vote count for working families! Support your union’s recommendations in the Primary Elections this September 20, 2008. ILWU members and families are urged to take a Democratic Ballot and vote for those candidates listed below. Cut out these lists and keep them in your wallet as a reminder when you vote. 

America’s middle class may be suffering from high gas prices and canceling plans to vacation in Hawaii, but the number of millionaires in the world is growing and they will continue their luxury travel and spending even during rough economic times.

The economies of the United States, the European Union, and Japan have slowed, but the Middle East, Latin America, India, and China are booming.

Most of the new millionaires are coming from India, China, Brazil and Russia and they have a big appetite for luxury goods and first class travel.

Every union contract has one—it’s called a wage schedule. This is usually found near the back of the contract and shows a list of job titles, the hourly wage paid to each job title, and the dates of wage increases.

The following example shows some of the job titles and wage increases from a typical ILWU hotel contract.