Sheraton Workers Ratify Waikiki Pact

Employees at Starwood's four Sheraton properties in Waikiki have ratified a four-year contract that runs until June 2010, according to their union, Unite Here Local 5. Meantime, workers at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, also in Waikiki, were slated to vote October 20 on a new four-year contract that if ratified will be in force until June 2010; results were anticipated to be released Friday night or Saturday, Hawaii time. In addition, the union also has begun talks with two other Waikiki hotels—the Waikiki Beach Marriott and the Hyatt Regency Waikiki—where workers have been working without a contract. Workers at three other Oahu hotels—the Ilikai, the Kahala and the Ala Moana—have agreed to extensions of their old contracts. No formal bargaining sessions have been set, but the hotels and the union have been in contact.