Cargo traffic across Hawaii’s docks was running close to a normal today as an uneasy peace returned to the waterfront, still faced with the threat of a statewide strike.
If the Hawaii dockworkers’ union, Local 142 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, sticks to statements made by its leaders over the weekend, a strike won’t happen until after all 507 members of Local 142 across the state have had a chance to make a strike-authorization vote.
Neither the union nor management made any new public comments by late this morning. Industry sources said that, as of this morning, the union had not returned management calls seeking a resumption of talks.
Gov. Ben Cayetano said today he has met with union members and plans to meet with management. But, he said, both sides have to work out a contract on their own.
“I’m not going to stick my nose in at this point in time,” the governor said.
Union leaders said the strike-authorization vote won’t be complete until Friday at the earliest.
That didn’t lessen the uncertainty today, as businesses and consumers throughout the islands waited for the union to terminate its contract at 6 p.m., the end of the 72-hour notice the union gave employers Friday.
An end to the contract, which was extended by mutual agreement when the last three-year pact ended June 30, doesn’t make a strike inevitable, since unions often keep working after contracts expire.
But it is a major step in making a walkout possible.
Yesterday, 17 members present at a meeting of the union’s Kauai unit – its smallest with 18 members – voted unanimously to authorize the union’s bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary.
Similar meetings were scheduled for today on Maui, Wednesday on the Big Island and Friday on Oahu.
Eusebio Lapenia, Local 142 state president, said yesterday that he would not delay negotiations because of the meeting if the companies are ready to talk this week. “We have Tuesday and Thursday open,” he noted.
The employers’ spokesman, Hawaii Employers Council President Tim Ho, issued a statement Saturday saying management had “attempted to inform the union of their willingness to resume contract negotiations.”
Meanwhile ships were being loaded and unloaded and although shippers said cargo wasn’t being shifted quite as fast as it usually is, there was no sign of the slowdown that plagued docks through last week.
Matson Navigation Co. had one ship sail for the West Coast early this morning. Another arrived from the West Coast around dawn. A ship already in port was expected to finish loading and head out later this morning and yet another was waiting outside Honolulu Harbor to take its place at the docks.
There was no picketing and no sign of interference, said Bal Dreyfus, Matson vice president and Hawaii area manager.
“Over the weekend things have improved,” said Matson’s Dreyfus.
“Yesterday things had improved, although we were still not normal levels. Every effort is being made to get back to the negotiating table.”
The ILWU’s Lapenia said after the Kauai vote that strike authorization by the rank and file is an expression of confidence in the negotiating committee. A strike will not be called without going back to each island for approval, he said.
“In negotiations, you try to have leverage,” he said.
The gathering for the vote on Kauai was anything but tense. The start was delayed briefly until the end of an NFL game on TV and after the meeting the group adjourned to the union hall parking lot where beer was waiting in a cooler in the back of a pickup truck.
Union members are seeking what they term “parity” with mainland ILWU units that recently signed new contracts.
But they said that to them “parity” means the same hourly wages and the same benefits but not the same annual income because longshoremen on Kauai work far fewer hours than their mainland counterparts.
Wendell Kiaha, a crane operator, said he objects to reports that union members here are seeking salaries of $93,000 a year, which mainland workers will get.
“A good week here is 32 hours of work and I would average about $55,000 a year,” Kiaha said.
The West Coast units of the ILWU, representing some 10,000 employees through the length of the coast, settled on a new contract in August. Their last contract also expired at the end of June. It is common for the Hawaii workers to wait until after a West Coast settlement before getting to the serious demands in their own negotiations.
