Hawai'i's largest hotel employee union said it has concerns about potential broad use of seasonal foreign workers for hotel jobs, though some local Filipino community leaders said they support the idea given the extraordinarily tight labor market.

UNITE HERE Local 5, which represents workers at 23 Hawai'i hotel properties, said its position is that worker shortages should be remedied by improving job benefits, which would help companies fill chronically vacant positions.

"What's important for us is to ensure that there are good jobs that can sustain families and support the high cost of living," said Cade Watanabe, a Local 5 spokesman.

Seasonal work visas typically are given for white-collar jobs such as teachers, doctors or in the technology sector, though some also have been given for agricultural workers.

On Thursday, a Big Island hotel, the Fairmont Orchid Hawaii, tapped the guest labor program when it began bringing in the first of up to 45 workers from the Philippines. It was a first for the hotel industry in Hawai'i, according to the state.

Fairmont said it fought a losing battle trying to hire from the state's labor pool, which stands out as the nation's tightest with a 2.1 percent unemployment rate, and had poor success recruiting on the Mainland.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142, which represents Fairmont Orchid employees, supports the seasonal work visa program given the difficulties filling jobs, which include worker drug-test failures.

James Hardway, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, said other hotels and some other industries are watching to see if Fairmont's strategy is successful.

That could lead to a spread of seasonal work visas, which are arranged through the U.S. Labor Department. Such visas, however, can be hard to get for unskilled labor. Also, importing workers, who receive prevailing wages and benefits, is expensive given recruitment and travel needs. So it's uncertain how big of a trend — if any — may develop from Fairmont's move.

Hilton Waikoloa Village two months ago used a different means, a training visa program, to hire 10 workers from Mexico and two from South Korea for hotel culinary jobs, and is now considering hiring Filipinos using seasonal worker visas like Fairmont.

"We're looking at it very closely," said Dieter Seeger, general manager of Hilton Waikoloa, which has about 100 of its 1,300 positions vacant. "Down the road we'll probably take the same approach."

Fairmont recruited family members of current employees with whom guest workers can live, in part to alleviate the need to find housing, a particular hardship in Kona that leads many workers to make a 90-minute to two-hour commute from Hilo. Fairmont's visas are valid through Aug. 15, though Fairmont can apply to extend the visas.

Cynthia Rankin, spokeswoman for Hilton Hawaii, said there are no plans to bring in seasonal workers for Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki because the labor pool and housing options aren't as restrictive as they are in Kona.

Watanabe of UNITE HERE said hotels employing members of his union have yet to broach the issue, but that he was surprised the ILWU would support such a program. "Hopefully we would not have to resort to that," he said.

Sen. Ron Menor, D-17th (Mililani, Waipi'o), said he would want to make sure companies can't use the seasonal work visa program to bring down wages or skirt other labor laws, but that he accepts the program for temporarily easing the state's extreme labor shortage.

"The fact that this is occurring indicates there is a weakness in our state economy," he said, encouraging government to step up efforts to develop a larger workforce through training programs and other efforts.

Former Gov. Ben Cayetano said in an e-mail that there should be more effort to train people who collect state assistance to take jobs hotels can't fill.

But he doesn't criticize private industry for turning to the seasonal work visa program for help after trying to fill jobs locally. "I have no problem with bringing in foreign workers because of the labor shortage," he said.

Eddie Flores Jr., owner and founder of the L&L Drive-Inn chain, said he thinks the work visa program is helpful for the unskilled labor sector when U.S. employees can't be found.

Flores said finding workers is more difficult on the Kona side of the Big Island than any other place in the state. There is one L&L in Kona and one in Waimea — and both require extraordinary effort to staff, he said.

"We can put an ad in the paper for a couple months and get no phone calls," Flores said. "I've had to fly people from Honolulu and provide them housing. I bought a house up there to house them."

Flores said his company is too small and doesn't pay as much as the big hotels, making the work visa program not feasible for his use. But he understands why more hotels and maybe other businesses may turn to the program to fill vacancies.

"I personally think it's a good idea," he said. "If (the hotels) are having problems, you can understand how difficult it is for us to retain employees."

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.