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Anxiety about workers future assuaged in community, union meetings
By Kate Gardiner
4/7/2008 8:05:34 PM
As the doors closed for the final time Saturday, Molokai Ranch workers hurried across the parking lot in a group. None looked back.
When asked to talk, they said, "We're all talked out. It's kind of an emotional time for us." The group went inside another Ranch building.
Employees later had a final barbecue together at the Kaluakoi Golf Course, while men and women visiting the island played a final round of golf. Many tourists will not return until the golf course reopens.
ILWU 142 president Fred Galdones said that in Friday's talks with union officials, Ranch CEO Peter Nicholas said the company closed for financial reasons, and told employees that he hoped the community would "rally behind La'au. Peter told us [the union reps] that the property is not for sale, no matter what…" Galdones continued, "They said, 'In order to move forward, [we] need community support to overcome opposition from the environmentalists," reported Galdones. "MPL said Monsanto would be the next target."
The union is bargaining to secure benefit of its members. It is also involved in collective bargaining for the remains of the company, as well as benefits and assistance for income. Galdones said that severance pay for Ranch workers was capped at 10 days, but that employees will receive the money.
Galdones said the community, "will need to determine its destiny … They live here, so they choose. We're hoping it's not a vocal minority."
A job fair will be held April 19 at the Kulana 'Oiwi halau from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Discussing the Ranch situation from behind the counter of his mother's store at Kaluakoi on April 4, Renault Gagtan, 37, said he'd brought his family back to Molokai in October to enjoy some of the economic opportunities of the Ranch resort, and eventually take over his mother's chain of gift shops.
Shop owner Maria Watanabe will close the store, Lodge & Beach Village Gift Shop, by the end of May per the Ranch's request. Her other two stores, including Gagtan's A Touch of Molokai, will stay, for now. "We're just taking it as it comes. [Walter Ritte] isn't the main problem … the Ranch [closing] is just so sad," said Gagtan.
More than 113 people, 89 full-time, lost their jobs when Nicholas announced the decision to "mothball" the Ranch's assets. Ranch officials have not spoken to the press since announcing the closure.
Residents in Ke nani kai, said former West Molokai Homeowner's Association president Darryl Canady, are concerned about what the Ranch's closure means to them. "We don't know about public utilities, water, sewer, electric," said Canady. He says the Ranch is obligated to the residents of the Kaluakoi area for keeping up the roads, lighting, fixing the fire hydrants and replacing signage following a land transfer from the Louisiana Land Company to MPL.
He says that he sent a letter to Molokai Ranch addressing these issues, and that the Ranch indicated that it would fix the problems within 30 days. As of last week it was 45 days later and nothing had been repaired.
Canady says that Ranch attorney Daniel Orodenker told the WMHA that his company, also known as Molokai Properties Limited, could not "commit to the project due to financial reasons."
Canady also reported that at a WMHA meeting March 29, Nicholas told WMHA members, "MPL would be dumping Well 17." Canady went on, "Nicholas said he wanted to send [the well] to WMHA, but instead had to offer it to the [Department of Hawaiian Homelands], the county and the state."
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Kate Gardiner
Kate Gardiner
Kate Gardiner
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