Company Description

From the earliest days of Hawaii’s tourist industry, our union has led Hawaii hotel workers to fight for good, secure jobs with a future, in an industry where most workers around the world work below the poverty line.

Chartered in 1938 by the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, Local 5 has remained one of the International Union’s most important and successful local unions ever since. Now named UNITE HERE, Local 5 continues to be a key player in the International Union’s strategies and campaigns.

Just as in the hotel industry, Local 5 members in Kaiser Permanente set the highest standard for wages and benefits in Hawaii’s health care industry, benefiting not only our members, but also all local health care workers. Since the 1950s, Local 5′s health care membership has grown to about 2,000 members — a large and important part of Local 5′s membership.

Throughout our history, Local 5 has maintained a reputation for aggressive advocacy and powerful servicing on behalf of our members, and hard-hitting negotiations campaigns that deliver what our members need. That reputation for building power on behalf of our members enabled Local 5 to grow from a few hundred members up to the current 10,000 members.