Number of Chinese visitors continues decline
HONOLULU — The number of Chinese visitors to Hawaii is decreasing in a trend that has continued for the past four years.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority found the number of Chinese visitors to the state is down 26% through the third quarter of this year that closed at the end of September.
About 150 million Chinese citizens traveled abroad in 2018. That number has more than tripled during a 10-year period, with Chinese travelers generating $250 billion in annual economic activity worldwide, according to China’s Ministry for Culture and Tourism.
Chinese arrivals in Hawaii have declined since 2015, the tourism authority said.
Nurses protest sick time amid negotiations
HONOLULU — Unionized nurses working without a contract at a Honolulu hospital have protested outside the hospital since last weekend and planned to continue the effort Wednesday as they dispute what they characterize as an overly strict sick time policy.
About 50 of the 450 nurses at Straub Medical Center represented by The Hawaii Nurses Associated picketed Tuesday.
The nurses’ contract expired Nov. 1 and they are trying to draw attention to what they consider a “strict and punitive attendance policy,” said association president Daniel Ross.
“Their major issue is the archaic attendance policy,” Ross said. “If you call in sick twice in one month, you get disciplined. You call in (sick) three times in six months, you get disciplined. The result of it is that it causes workers to come to work sick, saying it’s not safe, it’s not right. When workers come to work sick, they can get their patients sicker.”
Straub CEO Art Gladstone contested that view, saying the hospital’s parent company, Hawaii Pacific Health, has a fair and equitable attendance policy for its more than 7,000 employees.
