Hawaii Hotel Strike: Surf’s Up, Make Your Bed

Hotel managers, claiming that disruptions by striking workers have escalated out of control, asked a federal judge Friday to limit picketing to avert “blood in the streets.” The judge said no.

As Hawaii’s first statewide hotel strike marked its seventh day, tempers were wearing thin for everyone involved, especially the tourists unwittingly caught up in the dispute.

Although the struck hotels have continued operating since 7,500 workers walked out last Saturday, it’s not quite the Hawaiian vacation that many visitors envisioned.

Honeymooners can’t have breakfast in bed because room service has been suspended. Guests can’t even sleep in late, thanks to loud chanting from the picket lines.

Nor are the soothing sand and waves of Waikiki sacrosanct. Strikers have taken to marching up and down the beach with bullhorns bellowing. Even those tourists who leave the tourist strip of Waikiki, where the picketing is concentrated, return to find beds in their hotel rooms unmade and linen unchanged.

“It kind of puts you in a bad frame of mind,” said Rodney Wilkins, a guest at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, the state’s largest hotel. “Here we are, paying for services that are not being delivered.”

On Friday, while management headed for court, the union turned its attention to a new target. About 300 retired hotel workers picketed the Japanese Consulate for more than an hour, chanting, “Fair is fair, we want our share,” and, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, the Japanese have got to go.”

Most of the 11 hotels that are struck are Japanese-owned, although negotiations are being handled by the Council of Hawaii Hotels, which represents U.S. hotel operators, including Hilton, Hyatt and Sheraton.

The council sought help in U.S. District Court, claiming that hundreds of pickets had overwhelmed security guards and swarmed onto the grounds of the Kahala Hilton on Thursday.

Management contends that pickets have also disrupted entry to some hotels, damaged vehicles and disturbed guests with their chanting. “I do not think this court needs to wait until there is blood in the streets to protect the public,” argued Robert Katz, attorney for the Council of Hawaii Hotels.

But U.S. District Judge Harold Fong disagreed. He denied the motion for a temporary restraining order to bar pickets from hotel entrances. “From what I’ve seen, the situation has not turned ugly,” he said. “One incident does not a riot make.” So far, there has been just one arrest on the picket line, he noted.

Tony Rutledge, leader of the Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees Union, Local 5, said any violence was the result of security guards overreacting.

The strike affects 9,300 hotel rooms, 16% of the state’s total.

The hotels involved in the strike are the Hilton Hawaiian Village, the Hyatt Regency Waikiki, the Ilikai, the Kahala Hilton, the Sheraton Waikiki, the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, the Princess Kaiulani and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. On neighboring islands, the Sheraton Kauai, Sheraton Maui and Kona Hilton also are struck.

As the week has worn on, striking workers have become more unruly, jostling cars that cross the lines and yelling insults at strike breakers, according to management. Management also contends that the hotel workers’ slow shuffle is tying up traffic and blocking business.

Despite the spirited rhetoric in the courtroom, negotiations between union and management resumed on Friday afternoon. William Crawford, executive director of the hotel council, said the two sides have made progress.

Union leader Rutledge agreed that “we’re not that far apart.” “If they spend their energies at the bargaining table, rather than in court, we could get this thing settled in a day or two,” he added.

Talks broke down last Saturday and pickets hit the streets but the two sides returned to the bargaining table Tuesday at the behest of Gov. John Waihee, who fears the strike’s impact on Hawaii’s economy. Tourism is the state’s backbone. Officials are concerned that news reports will scare off visitors during the peak winter season.

There are signs that the strike has not hurt business that much. At United Airlines, the carrier that flies the most passengers to Hawaii, “we have not seen any impact from the hotel strike,” spokesman Joseph Hopkins said.

Nevertheless, in an effort to counteract the impression that the strike has “shut down Hawaii,” the Hawaii Visitors Bureau is launching a $300,000 “emergency advertising campaign” in mainland newspapers Sunday.

Katz alluded to those concerns in seeking court intervention. “Not only is there going to be blood in the streets, but the state economy is going to come to a grinding halt because this is going to scare the living daylights out of anyone who wants to come to Hawaii,” he said.

The strike is the talk of local radio stations and coffee shops. Although the hotel workers have substantial public sympathy in this strongly Democratic state, some residents are upset at union tactics that aggravate tourists, who are Hawaii’s bread and butter. One caller to a local radio station stopped his car in morning traffic to use a pay phone to register his disapproval.

For some visitors, the strike is a dream turned sour.

“I wish there was some other method of resolving this dispute,” said Len Hazzard, a visitor from Vancouver.

“We’re innocent. We only get a couple of weeks holiday here a year.”

Times staff writer Alisa Samuels contributed to this report.

DEMONSTRATIONS -- HAWAII