BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HONOLULU — The NAACP won’t be holding a Martin Luther King Jr. dinner at one of Waikiki’s largest hotels because of a union boycott. ADVERTISING Saturday’s annual gala honoring King was going
BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONOLULU — The NAACP won’t be holding a Martin Luther King Jr. dinner at one of Waikiki’s largest hotels because of a union boycott.
Saturday’s annual gala honoring King was going to be held at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach for the sixth year, but Local 5 asked the Honolulu-Hawaii branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to move the event because the union is boycotting the hotel.
“We took a principled stand in the best interest of all persons. It’s one Dr. King would have stood for,” Alphonso Braggs, the chapter president, said Thursday.
Moving the banquet to the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa will cost the chapter $8,000, putting a strain on the organization’s ability to give out scholarships, Braggs said. Canceling the contract with Hyatt 10 days before the event means having to pay the $8,000 guaranteed minimum and scrambling to find another venue that could accommodate the amount of attendees.
“We will be substantially in the hole this year,” Braggs said. “We won’t be giving out scholarships until we pay the bill. We will be looking at other means of raising revenue this year.”
Nearly 400, including Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, are expected to attend the $65-per plate event, which is the group’s biggest of the year. It normally raises money for scholarships and operating costs, Braggs said.
Local 5 announced a boycott of the hotel in June. The main issue is subcontracting and outsourcing of jobs, Local 5 spokesman Cade Watanabe said. The union also wants better working conditions for housekeepers.
Braggs said the branch renewed its contract to hold the event at Hyatt before the boycott. Moving the event, he said, isn’t about taking sides, but about avoiding a “distraction.”
“We are not getting caught up in the middle of this,” he said. “We are a civil rights organization. We are an organization that’s committed unconditionally to the rights of employees in America to have a better quality of life.”
“In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., our community has upheld the principles of justice that he lived for,” the union said in a statement thanking supporters for help in getting the event moved. “Just as Dr. King stood with striking sanitation workers in Memphis, you have stood with Hyatt workers in Honolulu and other cities across the country in their struggle to achieve justice and dignity on the job.”
Hyatt delivered its last, best and final offer to Local 5 last month, General Manager Jerry Westenhaver told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
“We’ve agreed to everything that the Hilton, Sheraton and Marriott agreed to as far as wages and economic packages,” he said. “The issue is still that they want card check and the right to strike here any time. It’s our feeling that these points are not employee driven. This is a national issue versus a local issue.”
Hyatt spokeswoman Laura Van Sciver added in a statement to The Associated Press that the decision to move the event was “unfortunate” and that boycott would hurt hotel employees.
Local 5 workers are joining workers at 17 other Hyatt hotels nationwide in a boycott.
