For Joe Maneja of Wailua Houselots, who could very well be the driver of the last load of sugar harvested by Amfac Sugar Kaua’i, there are more important things than getting teary-eyed over the end of the line. While he’s
For Joe Maneja of Wailua Houselots, who could very well be the driver of the
last load of sugar harvested by Amfac Sugar Kaua’i, there are more important
things than getting teary-eyed over the end of the line.
While he’s not
sure what he’ll do the day he’s officially told his services are no longer
needed, he’s happy to continue working until that day comes.
Maneja, 55,
has worked for Amfac for 28 years, most of that as a harvesting truck driver.
He said some of his co-workers are selling their homes for fear they won’t be
able to continue making mortgage payments and pay for cars and tuition for
children in college and private schools.
He is thankful he is among those
selected to be with the company until the end.
“Lucky us are the ones to
close this company,” he said.
Some of those workers furloughed in July
still haven’t found jobs, said Frank Valdez, who has helped keep the irrigation
water flowing for Amfac’s cane fields for 29 years. On Monday he will begin
studying nursing at Kaua’i Community College.
Valdez, 59, admitted he’ll be
a “little bit sad” when the last load of sugar harvested from the last field
rumbles into the mill area.
“That’s where we mostly earn our money, for
our house, children to go to school,” he said.
It’s also hard to get
sentimental over the last harvest when there is so much uncertainty over when
that will be, and when the real end of Amfac employment will occur, said
Valdez, part of a small group of workers who regularly gather in Hanama’ulu for
coffee and fellowship before starting their shifts at 7 a.m.
Like many
co-workers, Valdez said he is concerned for his co-workers who recently bought
homes or have children in private schools.
“We worry if we’re going to
find another job or not,” said Miguel Casino, 50, of Hanama’ulu, who has worked
for Amfac for eight years and is currently loading, unloading and stacking cane
to prepare it for the mill.
In his next breath, though, Casino is confident
that he and most of his co-workers will find work once the plantation shuts
down.
Valdez said he just got a letter indicating that Amfac will continue
his medical benefits through March of next year.
While he has been told by
co-workers that his services will be needed to maintain irrigation systems
after most of the rest of the plantation closes for good, his supervisors have
not yet informed him of his immediate future plans after Nov. 17. Last month,
Amfac announced it would cease all agricultural operations on the island on
that date.
“Maybe we can find some jobs, I guess. We’ll try. That’s life,”
said Maneja, who added that experience in agriculture can be put to use on this
island.
Workers formerly of the McBryde, Grove Farm and Olokele sugar
plantations found jobs after those closings – and, Maneja says, if people look
hard enough, there’s work to be found.
“Sacrifice to find jobs,” he
advised.
For most of the Amfac workers, going off-island for work isn’t
really an option, as homes and families are on Kaua’i.
On the west side,
the announcement of the end of Amfac was mostly a formality, said Scot
Tsuchiyama, manager and treasurer of Kekaha Federal Credit Union. The community
knew the end was coming so has been bracing for it for about 10 years, he
said.
Since the former Kekaha Sugar mill simply washes, chops and loads
cane into trucks that bring it to the Lihu’e Plantation mill, there is even
less final-harvest sentimentality. most Amfac employees on the West Side won’t
even see the final truck rumble into the Lihu’e mill.
Still, there is
sadness on the faces of some Amfac employees and retirees who stroll through
the Kekaha Federal Credit Union’s lobby, Tsuchiyama said.
The transition
needs to be done, and folks in Kekaha are eager to get started, he said. Of the
3,500 or so residents and approximately 1,400 credit union members, only around
200 are still employed in sugar. Most former sugar workers have caught on with
the hotels, some Kekaha residents driving as far as Princeville for the
visitor-industry work, he continued.
Others work at either Novartis Seeds
or Pioneer Hi-Bred International corn operations, or at the CEATECH shrimp
farm.
Those who will go from Amfac to the unemployment line realize that
about 400 people could easily be applying for the same job or jobs they’re
eyeing, so they could be out of work for some time, Tsuchiyama said.
In
earlier, smaller layoffs involving 40 or 50 workers, most of the employees
usually found work within a year, he said.
New buildings at the Pacific
Missile Range Facility will need warm bodies inside them, and Tsuchiyama and
others hope federal funding will flow, creating new jobs there.
Tsuchiyama
doesn’t see all the West Side Amfac workers being displaced.
“The land out
here still needs to be worked,” but the new agricultural jobs might require
former Amfac employees to take yet another pay cut, he said.
Staff
Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext.
224).
