Union workers at Hawaii's largest hotel go on strike

HONOLULU (AP) — About 2,000 workers went on strike Tuesday at Hawaii's largest resort, joining thousands of others striking at hotels in other U.S. cities.

Unionized workers at Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort — the largest Hilton in the world — began an open-ended strike at 5 a.m. They are calling for conditions including higher wages, more manageable workloads and a reversal of cuts implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic such as limited daily room cleaning.

Hilton representatives didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the strike.

Greg and Kerrie Sellers woke up Tuesday to drum beats, whistles and chants that they could hear coming from below their balcony at the resort.

“We heard the commotion from when we first woke up this morning," Greg Sellers recalled as they sat on a bench overlooking a lagoon outside the resort. "I don’t know that it’s going to have a great impact on our time here. I guess we’re sympathetic to the cause because ... the working rights over in Australia are much, much better than what they seem to be ... over here.”

Beachgoers sunbathing or sitting under umbrellas at the stretch of Waikiki beach near the resort could hear the strikers in the distance as hotel guests enjoyed the pool, shops and restaurants throughout the sprawling resort.

Outside on the street, workers marched and chanted bearing signs with slogans such as “One Job Should Be Enough,” which reflects how many Hawaii residents work multiple jobs to afford living in a state with an extremely high cost of living.

With the start of Tuesday's strike, more than 4,000 hotel workers are now on strike at Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels in Honolulu, San Diego and San Francisco, according to the UNITE HERE union. They will strike until they win new contracts, the union said, warning that more strikes could begin soon.

More than 10,000 hotels workers across the U.S. went on strike on Labor Day weekend, with most ending after two or three days.

Aileen Bautista said she has three jobs, including as a housekeeper at Hilton Hawaiian Village, in order to makes ends meet as a single mom.

“I am on strike again, and this time I am ready to stay on strike for as long as it takes to win," she said in a statement.

Her coworker, Estella Fontanilla, paused from using a megaphone to lead marching workers in chants to explain that preserving daily housekeeping is crucial because it is much harder to clean rooms that haven't been cleaned for days. She said she wants guests to keep asking for daily cleaning.

It was unclear how the strike would impact hotel services. The union warned that hotels where workers are striking may suspend services while trying to operate with skeleton staffing, and picket lines will run outside hotels for up to 24 hours a day.

“During earlier strikes, guests experienced disruptions including unavailable daily housekeeping, towels and linens piled up in hallways, piles of trash visible outside, closed bars and restaurants, and reduced pool hours,” the union said in a statement.

The hotel strike comes as more than 600 nurses are locked out of the Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children after going on a one-day strike earlier this month. On Monday, 10 people were arrested for blocking busloads of temporary nurses from entering the Honolulu hospital where nurses are calling for safer patient-nurse ratios.

On Tuesday, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and Attorney General Anne Lopez urged hospital and union leaders to seek federal mediation to help reach an agreement.

FILE - People walk into the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in Honolulu, on Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File)

FILE - People swim in the lagoon in front of the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in Honolulu on Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File)

Hotel workers march outside the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort after going on strike on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher)

The Hilton Hawaiian Village's rainbow-covered building is seen from the beach on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher)

Hotel workers march outside the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort after going on strike on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher)

Estella Fontanilla, a housekeeper on strike from the Hilton Hawaiian Village, leads fellow hotel workers in strike chants on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who authorities say staked out Donald Trump for 12 hours on his golf course in Florida and wrote of his desire to kill him was indicted Tuesday on an attempted assassination charge.

Ryan Wesley Routh had been initially charged with two federal firearms offenses. The upgraded charges contained in a five-count indictment reflect the Justice Department's assessment that he methodically plotted to kill the Republican nominee, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery surrounding Trump's West Palm Beach golf course on an afternoon Trump was playing on it. Routh left behind a note in which he described his intention, prosecutors said.

Court records show the case has been assigned to Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge who generated intense scrutiny for her handling of a criminal case charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She dismissed that case in July, a decision now being appealed by special counsel Jack Smith's team.

The attempted assassination indictment had been foreshadowed during a court hearing Monday in which prosecutors successfully argued for the 58-year-old Routh to remain behind bars as a flight risk and a threat to public safety.

They alleged that he had written of his plans to kill Trump in a handwritten note months before his Sept. 15 arrest in which he referred to his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 for anyone who could “finish the job.” That note was in a box that Routh had apparently dropped off at the home of an unidentified witness months before his arrest.

After the attempted assassination, the person opened the box, took a photograph of the front page of the letter — addressed “Dear World” — and contacted law enforcement.

Prosecutors also said Routh kept in his car a handwritten list of venues at which Trump had appeared or was expected to be present in August, September and October.

The charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate carries a potential life sentence in the event of a conviction. Other charges in the indictment include assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and the two original firearms charges he faced last week.

The potential shooting was thwarted when a member of Trump’s Secret Service protective detail spotted a partially obscured man's face and a rifle barrel protruding through the golf course fence line, ahead of where Trump was playing. The agent fired in the direction of Routh, who sped away and was stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.

Routh did not fire any rounds and did not have Trump in his line of sight, officials have said. He left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food.

The arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has acknowledged failings leading up to that shooting but has said that security worked as it should have to thwart a potential attack in Florida.

The initial charges Routh faced in a criminal complaint accused him of illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. It is common for prosecutors to bring preliminary and easily provable charges upon an arrest and then add more serious offenses later as the investigation develops.

The FBI had said at the outset that it was investigating the episode as an apparent assassination attempt, but the absence of an immediate charge to that effect opened the door for Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to announce his own state-level investigation that he said could produce more serious charges.

Trump, seeking to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the investigation and the Justice Department more broadly, complained Monday — before the attempted assassination charge was brought — that federal prosecutors were “mishandling and downplaying” the case by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”

Asked Tuesday at an unrelated press conference about Trump’s criticism, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “would spare no resources to ensure accountability” in the case.

“All of our top priority should be ensuring that accountability occurs in this case and that those who run for office and their families are safe and protected,” Garland said.

The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched Routh's car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.

A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.

In addition, prosecutors have cited a book authored by Routh last year in which he lambasted Trump’s approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In the book, he wrote that Iran was “free to assassinate Trump” for having left the nuclear deal.

Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Curt Anderson contributed to this report.

Man who staked out Trump at Florida golf course charged with attempting an assassination

Man who staked out Trump at Florida golf course charged with attempting an assassination

Ryan Wesley Routh takes part in a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)