Union leaders' influence softening

The federal indictment last week of Gary Rodrigues, the tough-talking state director of the United Public Workers union, and the turmoil within the leadership of the hotel and restaurant workers union, show how dramatically the once unassailable personal power of Hawai‘i’s labor leaders has diminished in recent years.

Rodrigues, whose power is founded on the 12,000 members who make up the second-largest union in the state, has wielded such extensive political and economic influence for the last 30 years that to many he seemed untouchable.

But now Rodrigues is accused of stealing from the blue-collar state, city and county workers who gave him their votes and his political reach in return for his blunt advocacy. In a 43-count federal indictment last week, Rodrigues and his daughter were accused of taking at least $200,000 by overcharging union members for medical and dental benefits. Rodrigues is charged with embezzlement, mail fraud and money-laundering.

"The indictment destroys the image that unions in Hawai‘i are run by bosses who have absolute, dictatorial control and are not accountable to their members," said William Boyd, a labor economist with the University of Hawai‘i Center for Labor Education and Research. "This indictment indicates that people are accountable to their members."

But others, like state Sen. Robert Nakata, D-23rd (Kane‘ohe, Kahuku) of the Senate Labor Committee, said he believes the potential loss of a strong, politically connected leader like Rodrigues will weaken the UPW’s influence.

Boyd disagreed, saying he dismisses the idea that Rodrigues’ indictment means the UPW has lost the political power needed to exert influence on behalf of its members.

"If a major executive were indicted for embezzlement, would that mean business in Hawai‘i is weaker? Of course not," Boyd said.

"Unions get their strength from the active involvement of their members and their ability to conduct discussions and carry out negotiations," said Boyd, adding: "If you have a strong leader but not an active membership, then you have a weak union."

He said members increasingly question leadership through "union democracy," which is most visibly played out in hotly contested elections or grievance procedures. He said if Rodrigues loses his job, a heated election probably will follow.

"Contested elections strengthen unions rather than weaken them because it stirs a debate of different ideas. It can lead to more efficient management or to a more militant union. But complacency is the worst for unions," Boyd said.

Turmoil at Local 5

Another of Hawai‘i’s largest unions, the 10,000-member Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 5, was recently placed in trusteeship by its international union because leadership infighting had stalled efforts to negotiate contracts.

Much of the infighting is between factions supporting either Eric Gill or Tony Rutledge. Gill beat Rutledge last year in a close and bitterly fought election for the top job in the local. The two labor leaders have been at odds in the past, but feuding between them has escalated in recent months.

Boyd said he sees the Local 5 turmoil as another potent example of union leaders being held accountable to members, rather than a weakening of union power.

"Local 5 will likely have an election in six months, and some of the questions around Local 5 will be resolved," he said.

William Puette, director of UH’s Center for Labor, said the indictment of Rodrigues and the trusteeship of Local 5 are "irrelevant side shows." But he said the threat to labor’s influence is real, the result of a more conservative generation coming into political power and the change from plantation jobs to service and technology jobs.

"Organized labor was built on a more cohesive society than we have now. On the plantations, people worked and lived in communities. They could see their common bonds and alliances and could build consensus," Puette said.

Hawai‘i remains the second-most-unionized state. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, about 124,000 wage and salary employees — nearly 25 percent of Hawai‘i’s work force — held union memberships in 2000.

While the contraction of the Hawai‘i economy in the 1990s brought unions in for heavy public criticism, their base — if not their leadership — remains strong. Union leaders say that as they won better and better wage and benefits packages for their members, non-union workers grew unsympathetic to their cause and even blamed them, in part, for the downturn that gripped the state.

Russell Okata, executive director of the 24,000-member Hawaii Government Employees Association, said: "There’s a feeling out there of ‘I don’t have it, so you shouldn’t have it.’ So instead of bringing up the level of all workers, there’s this feeling that organized workers’ (wages and benefits) should be brought down to the level of unorganized workers."

The labor movement in Hawai‘i peaked in the 1970s after the Legislature approved a collective bargaining law for public employees. During the 1980s, workers enjoyed expanding wage and benefits as the local economy soared on Japanese investment.

Changing political climate

But when the Japanese economic bubble burst and the economy soured, some public sentiment turned against unions and their leaders, and even historically labor-friendly politicians like Gov. Ben Cayetano found they could make points by bashing public employee union leaders for being out of touch with the harsh realities of a stalled economy.

Rodrigues was an especially appealing target, with his loud denunciations of efforts to privatize some government work, his threats to punish politicians who refused to budge on contract issues and his attacks on some of his own members who questioned his leadership.

Public sentiment toward unions in Hawai‘i reached a turning point in October 1999 when dockworkers threatened to strike. As the public learned about crane operators making $120,000 a year, or linemen tying up ships for $150,000 a year, their sympathy ebbed, replaced by anger or resentment that the threatened strike could cause the first local shipping crisis in nearly 30 years.

While a strike was averted, it became clear that the broad public support unions once counted on had eroded. Hawai‘i residents, many of them from a generation that never knew the hardship and discrimination that fueled the labor movement in the 1940s and 1950s, were more troubled by the potential inconvenience of empty store shelves than the fact that dockworkers were making less than their West Coast counterparts.

"We are increasingly isolated and ‘Dilbertized’ in our jobs," said Puette, adding: "Our society is so noncohesive that people are almost programmed to think selfishly and ask ‘What’s in it for me?’ That makes it harder to have union solidarity."

This week and next, public sentiment will be tested as two unions take strike authorization votes. The Hawai‘i State Teachers Association is scheduled to take a strike vote Wednesday. The public school teachers are seeking a 22 percent raise over four years. State officials have countered with an 11 percent increase offer.

The University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly, representing faculty, has scheduled strike authorization votes for March 19-21. The 3,125-member union wants a 14.9 percent increase over four years. The state is offering 6 or 7 percent.

Sen. Nakata said that as the needs of employees have changed, so has the influence of unions.

"Unions are the victims of their own success," Nakata said. "The Democratic Party and the unions were built on poor people and lower-middle-class people and helping them to move up. Hawai‘i has become more of a middle-class society, and the needs of the middle class are different. The middle class is more concerned about education and the economy rather than social injustice."

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