Amfac plans to
rehire 100 furloughed
sugar workers

The company will maintain its
Kauai operations but drop
cooperative farming deals

By Trish Moore
Star-Bulletin

LIHUE -- Amfac/JMB Hawaii says it plans to keep its sugar operations on Kauai and bring 100 of 413 furloughed employees back to work within the next two weeks.

The furloughs began yesterday after workers overwhelmingly rejected a company revitalization plan aimed at keeping its Kauai operations viable by having workers assume some of the risks in return for a stake in profits.

Called back to work are planters and irrigation and garage staff. The remainder of furloughed employees, who specialize in harvesting, hauling and milling, will be called once an exact harvest date has been set, said Amfac/JMB President Gary Grottke.

"We are very concerned about the local economy and the impact that the closing of our operation would have on other Amfac business activity on Kauai," Grottke said.

Mayor Maryanne Kusaka was relieved by the announcement. "I will personally express my deepest appreciation to Gary Grottke for having taken into consideration the detrimental impacts that would have been brought by the closure of Amfac's sugar plantations to our rural community struggling to emerge from major setbacks," she said.

The company will reopen negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents sugar workers.

Workers rejected by a 3-to-1 margin the Imua plan, developed by company management, union officials and rank-and-file workers.

The workers faced a 10 percent wage reduction, no overtime under 56 hours per week, a possible reduction in severance pay, and uncertainties as to whether the plantation would turn a profit.

Neither Amfac management nor ILWU officials would confirm that workers' severance pay was an issue in the rejection of Imua, but several sources said it was.

Imua also represented a dramatic shift from the traditional plantation work-for-wages lifestyle to a cooperative, almost entrepreneurial style of farming.

Rather than specializing, workers would have cross-trained in all aspects of production and then worked in teams assigned to farm smaller plots of land. Workers would also have a one-third stake in any profits.

"The transition from a plantation into a co-op style of farming is very difficult, and add to that the overriding economy of scale in sugar production, issues like who's responsible for maintaining the mill and buying the fertilizer. It left a lot of uncertainty among workers," said Jennifer Sebastian Goto, who heads Sen. Daniel Inouye's Hawaii office.

The concept has been successful for some mainland sugar beet farmers, but they don't have the huge infrastructure and maintenance costs involved in sugar cane production, she said.

In future negotiations, Amfac will still seek wage reductions but drop the cooperative farming aspect of Imua, Grottke said.

Amfac spokesman Jim Boersema said the company is working on a plan for the roughly 250 employees at Pioneer Mill on Maui.

A vote is six months away, he said.