Workers at Maui Land & Pineapple Co.'s Honolua plantation will lose their jobs as part of the company's reorganization, but exactly what that will mean for the future of the plantation remained unclear Monday.

ML&P spokeswoman Teri Freitas Gorman confirmed the layoffs of the field workers in West Maui, but told The Maui News: "We have not developed a firm plan to do anything right now" with the plantation.

"One alternative is to shut down the Honolua plantation," she said, adding that alternatives would be presented to the company's board in November.

William Kennison, Maui division director for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said he understood Maui Pineapple Co.'s plan was to close the entire Honolua plantation.

That was not the union's understanding when the news came Thursday that ML&P is terminating 274 workers, including 204 at Maui Pine.

The new scenario continues the uncertainty among ILWU workers about who will keep a job and who will go - except for the 50-some workers at Honolua.

"A lot of old-timers are going to be laid off" at Honolua, Kennison said Monday afternoon. He and union stewards were meeting with members at Haliimaile, the Kahului cannery and Honolua to bring the latest layoff news Monday afternoon.

Through the weekend, the union had expected that the 125 or so layoffs that will affect its members would be company-wide. That would then trigger a "bumping" process in which members with more seniority could save their jobs.

However, the way the contract is structured, when an entire division is closed down, as at Honolua, its members lose their bumping rights.

The number of ILWU members to go is around 125, with Maui Pine laying off about 80 contract workers from Pohnpei. Most of these are not covered by the ILWU Local 142 bargaining agreement.

However, some are. It depends whether they had worked more than 100 days, after which the Pohnpeians come under the union agreement. Kennison said he was uncertain exactly how many workers are in each category.

Kennison said the union is calling in its counselors from Oahu in the now-familiar response to layoffs: counseling, retraining and helping fired employees find other work.

Kennison said he has hopes that some of the Haliimaile workers, who are mostly field workers, will find new employment with Upcountry farmers.

"They won't get the same pay and the same benefits, but that's something," he said. Several farmers the ILWU has contacted indicated they can use help.

The union has also contacted U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and Rep. Mazie Hirono to see if Congress can lend a hand.

Gorman said the company was "looking hard" at returning pineapple cultivation to fields closer to the Kahului processing facility, a move that would reduce the fuel costs of trucking fruit from West Maui to Central Maui.

High fuel prices were cited last week as a main reason for the drastic downsizing of the company. Honolua is a much longer haul to Kahului than the fields around Haliimaile.

As Maui Pine has shrunk, it has yo-yo'd about where to plant.

The Honolua division was a main source of fruit in canning days. As the company shifted over to fresh sales, Honolua was abandoned because the fresh packing was done at Haliimaile.

At one point, it was announced that only a small display field would be kept at Honolua.

But before canning was abandoned completely, the plan changed again. A new, highly automated fresh pack facility was built in Kahului, as phase one of a new multi-product processing plant that would allow the canning facility to process both pine and other produce that Maui Pine hoped local farmers and processors would bring to its door.

As part of that, the center of gravity of pine growing was switched back to Honolua, which was described as better for the Maui Gold fresh variety, a touchier plant to grow than the Champaka canning variety.

Huge losses at the end of 2006 brought an end to plans for the multi-product processing facility, which was never built, and canning at the old plant. Its equipment was sold off a year ago.

Gorman said the pineapple already being grown in West Maui will be harvested.

"We wouldn't leave fruit on the ground," she said, adding that it takes pineapple 18 to 24 months to grow.

The ILWU workers will hold on to their jobs for 60 days, as provided in their contract, she said. Contract workers, including those from Pohnpei, were terminated immediately.

Maui Pine has retained more than 200 workers to plant and harvest pineapple, she said.

Gorman said company plans could include expanding Kapalua Farms operations, which include organic farming. The lands also are being eyed for renewable energy crops, she said.

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