Army rest-and-relaxation hotel Hale Koa charged with rousting union organi

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2006/09/11/daily71.html

Hale Koa charged with rousting union organizers
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - 6:42 PM HAST Friday

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Four members of Unite Here Local 5 have filed suit in U.S. District Court charging civil rights violations by Hale Koa managers and guards.

Hale Koa is the Army rest-and-relaxation hotel on Waikiki Beach between Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Outrigger. The suit charges that Hale Koa security officers and management threatened Bill Kearsley, Loreta Tactay, Nelly Nam and Laura Moye with physical force and arrest for demonstrating on the sidewalks outside the hotel.

"The sidewalks are clearly part of the Waikiki transportation grid and in no way resemble a military installation," Local 5 said Friday. "The suit contends that the public should have the same rights of communication there as on any other public sidewalks."

Bill Kearsley has been a Hale Koa lifeguard for nine years and is a Local 5 organizer. Local 5 was recently certified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority as exclusive representative of the hotel workers of the Hale Koa.

The complaint says the plaintiffs seek damages in excess of $75,000 "for injuries sustained by them that were caused by the actions of the defendants."

The individual defendants are, according to the complaint, Robert Souza, an assistant manager of Hale Koa; Wilma Botelho, a human resources employee of the hotel; Lt. Sherry Stacy, a law enforcement officer at the hotel; and a Sgt. Williams, also a law enforcement officer employed by the Army.

"Defendants are agents of the United States Government and are clothed with its authority, including its coercive power," the complaint said. It cites a 1973 court case, Schroth v. Warner, as establishing that Ft. DeRussy, on whose grounds the incident took place, is despite its name not a military installation but rather "is primarily a recreation center for the armed forces without sentries, gate guards, or obstruction to public access...and has no 'strictly military areas'."

Judge Leslie Kobayashi has called the parties together Dec. 4.