Princeville Hotel workers cast their ballots yesterday on whether to unionize in a highly anticipated certification election. Official results were not available as of press time, as vote tallying carried on well after the closing of polls at 7 p.m.
Princeville Hotel workers cast their ballots yesterday on whether to unionize in a highly anticipated certification election.
Official results were not available as of press time, as vote tallying carried on well after the closing of polls at 7 p.m.
An estimated 300 workers were eligible to participate in the election.
On the ballot were three options: no union, Unite Here! Local 5 representation or Local 142 of International Longshore and Warehouse Union representation.
To win, unions must receive a 50 percent majority plus one vote, according to Thomas Cestare, officer-in-charge of the Honolulu National Labor Relations Board. If there is no clear majority among the three entities on the ballot, there is a runoff for the top two vote-getters.
Cestare said the unions have up to seven days to contest the results. If there are no objections at that point, the results will be certified.
“This is democracy in action,” he said of the process.
Employee interest in a certification election was prompted, in part, by plans to renovate the Princeville Hotel and upgrade it from the parent company’s Luxury Collection to its St. Regis brand. As a result, workers are anticipating change and new responsibilities, according to union representatives.
Local 142 of ILWU is the state’s largest private sector union with a strong concentration in hotels, including the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa locally and two Starwood properties on Neighbor Islands.
Local 5 is a branch of Unite Here!, a national union that represents 57 Starwood properties, including a number of Sheraton resorts in Hawai‘i.
In early July, after two years of talks with Princeville workers, ILWU filed a petition with the Honolulu labor board to run a certification election,
or vote to unionize, at the hotel.
An initial date was set for late August.
Local 5 came on the scene shortly thereafter and asked that the election include additional categories of employees. The board granted Local 5’s request, and late last month it rescheduled the vote.
Media were not allowed on Princeville Hotel property to cover the election.
• Blake Jones, business writer/assistant editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or bjones@kauaipubco.com.
