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Striking Unite Here Local 5 hotel workers head back to the bargaining table today with added momentum from taking their picket to Marriott’s Hawaii headquarters. Read more

Striking Unite Here Local 5 hotel workers head back to the bargaining table today with added momentum from taking their picket to Marriott’s Hawaii headquarters.

The strike, which is the longest running hotel strike in Hawaii since 1970, began Oct. 8 when negotiations between Local 5 and Kyo-ya, which owns the Marriott-­managed Sheraton Waikiki, Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Westin Moana Surfrider, Sheraton Princess Kaiulani and Sheraton Maui, reached an impasse.

Kyo-ya and Marriott declined to comment on the action or upcoming negotiations.

Wednesday morning about 1,000 strikers and supporters attired in red formed a line through Waikiki as they marched from the Westin Moana Surfrider, where workers now have been striking for 39 days, to Marriott’s offices at 2155 Kalakaua Ave.

Workers with megaphones spent more than an hour in front of Marriott’s Hawaii headquarters chanting slogans. Some banged drums and other makeshift instruments such as empty gas cans.

Local 5 Secretary-Treasurer Eric Gill said the action showed Kyo-ya and Marriott that the union’s 2,700 striking workers remain strong as they head back to the bargaining table today and Friday.

“Hotel management often has illusions about what our members can and can’t do,” Gill said. “The power that we have is the people. They didn’t come all this way to settle out cheap. We still need to close a significant gap on cost items.”

Some community members stepped in the line and some passing drivers honked to show their support for the union’s battle. However, as the strike has dragged on some community members and visitors have lost patience with the movement.

Jackie Brown, an Oahu resident who runs a window cleaning business, shook his head as the strikers passed.

“They need to get back to work. This strike is affecting everyone,” Brown said. “I’m struggling to run my window cleaning business and a lot of my work is on standby.”

Jean Teo-Gibney, a striking front desk worker at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, said she and other workers hope the strike gets resolved soon for the sake of the union members, the management, the customers and the other businesses that have been impacted.

Teo-Gibney, who has worked for Kyo-ya for 30 years, said the strike is heartbreaking for workers who “believe we are part of what we’ve helped (Kyo-ya and Marriott) become.”

Local 5 has stopped discussing details of their current bargaining; however, when the strike started they were seeking a $3-hourly-wage increase and Kyo-ya had offered a 70-cent-hike for wages and benefits. The average Local 5 housekeeper makes $22 an hour.

Local 5 spokeswoman Paola Rodelas said the union doesn’t know what the current wage differential is between Local 5 workers and non-union hospitality workers. However, in 2015, the most recent wage survey data available, Rodelas said Local 5 housekeepers averaged $19.44 an hour as compared to non-union housekeepers who averaged $15.43.

“We were hoping that we could come to an agreement last week,” Teo-Gibney said. “Once the strike ends and we return to work, there will be peace. The management, ownership, guests and workers are all an ohana. Sometimes we don’t agree and we have to agree to disagree, but we are all truly an ohana.”

In the meantime, Gill said the union will keep running its strike, which he characterized as “the most effective in Hawaii’s history.”

“(Marriott and Kyo-ya) hate the strike. It’s hurting them economically,” Gill said. “It’s also hurt service. Marriott issued a call for people to volunteer to do our work.”

Marriott is advertising that it will pay $23 an hour plus bonuses to temporary workers. Marriott also has hired local contract companies to provide staffing and it’s flying in workers from its properties across the country.

“It’s an expensive way to run a hotel and they aren’t able to conduct business as usual. Customers have complained to us and some have filed suit,” Gill said.

The local action is part of a nationwide strike, which is also underway in Boston and San Francisco. Settlements have been reached in Detroit and the California cities of San Jose, Oakland and San Diego.