Hawaii Hotels Cut Services in Strike

Thousands of workers at some of Hawaii’s biggest hotels walked off the job Saturday, leaving some guests without fresh sheets and towels and otherwise disrupting the state’s $6-billion-a-year tourist industry.

Many hotels were forced to cut back on meal and room services as managers scrambled to take the places of strikers.

A spokesman for the hotel industry said the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union had rejected a four-year contract that called for annual wage increases of 5% plus hikes in benefits that boosted the total package to around 7%.

However, a union spokesman calculated the management proposal at about 4%.