Before the pandemic, I had to raise my workers pay by 11% AND this year due to high inflation in Hawaii, I raised it again by 9% at the same time period that, even with our low reimbursement rates here in Hawaii to begin with, CMS/Medicare has decreased our reimbursement rates by 3-4% twice.
The average household cleaner gets $20-25/hr in hawaii according to a quick Craigslist or care.com search. These are not hotel rates. These are living wages rates here in high cost Maui from households who hire cleaners.
These workers voted with majority to strike. This strike wasn't only due to a few "troublemakers."
That yacht hitting the coral has gotten more news coverage than the strike which happened at the same time...But this strike symbolizes a yacht, a for profit only motive company, Kaiser FoundationHospitals, running aground on our precious resource- the people. And it so happens the majority of these people are Filipinos and Hawaiians. There should be more stories on Maui newspapers. We want investigative reporting and not just PR regurgitating. The excuse from the higher ups in the hospitals are always "we are in the red" "we are not a hotel" so we can't pay as much" ...but if MHS stops contracting out the lucrative parts of the hospital to outside contracting management groups, so for example, the physician owners of those contracting groups can build mega beach mansions in Cali after 5 years in Maui AND actually run an integrated hospital who can draw on resources from lucrative departments to departments that need more funding- it might actually find enough money to cover this needed raise. And furthermore, if Kaiser Foundation Hospitals actually made good on their promises to invest into MMMC operations improvement maybe we wouldn't have to ride on the backs of struggling workers who started at lower paid wages without a raise in 5 years striking without pay and without health insurance for almost two weeks now- the segment of the paid hospital workforce who can't really afford to strike but are forced to in order to be heard.
Oh and by the way, this strike is not only about money for the strikers personally, but also about worker's safety which I've been told through by community members that the union members are forbidden to talk about. The mayor and city council should investigate and talk to the workers there off record and investigate this. I call on our elected officials to step up like they've stepped up to publicize the desecration of a precious bay and forced immediate action, to step up and publicize our healthcare workers plight and demand investigation and action.
From a Ken Moskow, a good overview: