Unionized Ilikai Hotel workers who have been without a contract for nearly six years had planned on holding a rally Friday but instead held a one-day strike.

The move clearly worked.

After 10 hours and 10 minutes of the strike, the workers’ union, Unite Here Local 5, and the company signed a tentative agreement at 4:10 p.m. Friday that includes “immediate wage increases that bring Ilikai workers up to standard with other Waikiki hotel workers,” Local 5 said in a news release.

Ilikai workers walked off the job at 6 a.m. Friday, with roughly 50 people out on the picket line, including employees from other Local 5 properties, a Local 5 spokesperson said.

Workers returned to work as early as Friday evening.

Ilikai workers make $8 less an hour, on average, than their counterparts at other Waikiki hotels, Local 5 said in a news release. Despite that discrepancy, the Ilikai’s guest rooms are twice the size of an average hotel guest room, and all include full kitchens, according to the union. The Ilikai hotel had not brought back automatic daily guest room cleaning, while the majority of other Waikiki hotels have done so.

A news release issued by Local 5 says the tentative agreement also includes:

>> Immediate restoration of automatic daily room cleaning.

>> Housekeeping workload improvements.

>> Premium hourly increases for bellmen.

>> Improvements to meal and transit pass subsidies.

>> A process for dealing with newly introduced technologies.

>> Retirement with dignity.

“We’ve been fighting for six years to show that all of us workers at the Ilikai Hotel are not second-class citizens, and today we finally won that fight,” said Merlinda Castro, a housekeeper at the Ilikai. “So many of us housekeepers are women who work hard every day to provide for our families, so it means even more to me that we won a fair contract today on International Women’s Day.”

Striking on International Women’s Day was fitting, they say, since historically nearly 90% of housekeepers are women.

Castro, 42, said she has worked at the Ilikai Hotel &Luxury Suites for eight years as a housekeeper. Her financial obligations include paying her 22-year-old son’s college tuition and for her 76-year-old mother’s medication.

“I need the raise up,” she said. “Living in Hawaii is so expensive. Living paycheck to paycheck, I cannot afford to support my family.”

Pamela Balintona, another housekeeper at the resort, said, “Winning back automatic daily room cleaning is a huge victory. It’s a victory for the workers of Ilikai and for the guests who are paying top dollar but not getting all the services they pay for.”

The Ilikai Hotel &Luxury Suites and the Ilikai Lite are listed among Aqua-Aston Hospitality’s Oahu properties. The hotel had not responded to requests for comments late Friday afternoon.

Union members employed at the Ilikai took a vote Thursday night and decided to strike.

Local 5 says contracts for its nearly 7,000 hotel workers are set to expire in 2024.

Castro said before the tentative agreement had been reached that she was willing to lose out on a whole day’s wages “because we’re fighting for our contract.”

“We’re fighting because we’re super behind for six years already,” she said. “We make $8 less than the rest of Waikiki hotels. We deserve a contract.”