Posted on: Sunday, September 2, 2001
Hawai'i unions heeding wake-up call
By Bob Dye
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| Members of various Hawai'i labor organizations, including the HGEA, the UPW and the ILWU, rallied in front of the State Capitol building last year. Labor has experienced rough going in the Legislature lately.
Advertiser library photo • April 19, 2000 |
Hawai'i's labor unions march today in the face of unprecedented challenges to their political power and influence over Island elections.
Today's march, says Democratic Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, "is more than simply a show of force."
Hirono, a candidate for governor, says the march "represents a coming together in the best interest of all the working men and women in Hawai'i. That's a very encouraging and positive sign of what the future may hold for our state. The message it sends is that teamwork — working together — can make great progress, and that's a message in which I strongly believe."
"Labor has had a wake-up call," Russell K. Okata, the executive director of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, tells me, "and that has brought the unions together."
The 57-year-old labor leader speaks in a soft but serious voice. There is none of the barrel-chested bombast of the labor leaders of old; no threat of a strike or slowdown or sick-out. There is simply a quiet resolve to replace by the ballot box those elected officials who legislated away hard-won gains by public employee unions. And to put into office those politicians who support organized labor.
Okata is especially concerned that binding arbitration is gone as an option for HGEA. "You don't want to force essential public workers to strike," he says, smiling wanly at the obvious irony. "Binding arbitration works," he explains. "It's fair, equitable, responsible. It must be restored in the next session."
State Republican leader Linda Lingle would not be opposed to that, she says, but only if there is agreement on parameters, and more flexibility. "It's a good concept," says the GOP standard bearer. "But there's a need for adjustment."
HGEA once was seen as an adjunct of the Democratic Party. Pioneer union organizers went into the fields to sign folks up for the party as well as the union.
Although that has changed, a sentimental attachment between union and party remained until the last days of the last session.
But the knot, which began to loosen several elections ago, came undone in 1998, when unions went their separate ways in the Honolulu mayoral election. Private-sector unions backed Jeremy Harris and public-sector unions backed Mufi Hannemann.
When Harris won, it was apparent that without private-union help, the public-employee unions were no longer the political force that they once were.
Legislators saw that, too. The result was hurtful to public employees, says Okata. Privatization beat out managed competition, binding arbitration was replaced by the right to strike, and health benefits were lost.
Today's call for union solidarity is loud and clear. "In the next election, unions — public and private, large and small — must be united to reverse the losses suffered in that legislative session," he says.
With more than 25,000 members in collective bargaining units and another 16,000 associate members, the HGEA can count on 92 percent of them to vote, claims Okata, a former research statistician. Add a "family" multiplier of one-and-a-half to two, he says, and you have one of the largest bloc votes in the state.
HGEA will hold candidate forums in all districts, statewide. Union members from each district will meet face to face with the politicians who want their votes, says Okata. "On the spot, workers can sign up to work for a candidate."
But those practical fixes to the endorsement process are overshadowed by historic changes in the way HGEA plays politics. No longer will the union endorse all incumbents. And endorsement of only Democrats in the primary is a thing of the past. "We're open," says Okata.
Lingle is happy to hear that. "The Democrats have taken the labor vote for granted for too long," she says. "I'm really pleased to learn the HGEA may endorse Republicans in the primary election. We want that to happen."
Formerly, about one out of every five HGEA members voted for Republicans, says Okata. Will that figure go up if the GOP responds positively to HGEA's new openness?
The GOP is not anti-union, says Micah Kane, the Republican Party executive director. He's right. In the 1998 race, the Hawai'i State Teachers Association (HSTA) and the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly (UHPA) endorsed Lingle in her unsuccessful run for governor. The year 2000 GOP platform calls for defending the right of workers to organize, and supporting the concept of collective bargaining.
"We're still with the little guys who make the economy go," promises Democratic Party head Lorraine Akiba. "And I'm impressed by those emerging labor leaders who are thinking outside of the box. That's a positive!"
D.G. "Andy" Anderson has met with Okata and other labor leaders to assess his chances of winning the Democratic nomination, and to offer some friendly advice. "Your strength politically is to campaign as one, for whomever you decide to support." He doesn't mince words. "You have allowed yourselves over the past several elections to lose sight of your real political power as an organized labor bloc, and let yourselves get divided going after your own individual agendas, often at the expense of your brother. You really created, or at least contributed to, the situation you all find yourself in today."
Russell is impressed by Andy's call for a partnership between labor and government: "The next governor cannot govern in a meaningful way, and really accomplish major and needed change, without the unions' help," he says. The HGEA has endorsed Andy in the past, Russell reminds me.
My wife had told me to order the oxtail soup at the Wisteria restaurant. But I follow Russell's lead and order steamed eggplant and chicken. The vegetable is delicately flavored and delicious. But the portions are so generous that I can't finish all of the chicken bits, nor the rice.
Russell ate all.
He stacks his dishes in an orderly and methodical way. Neat and clean. That's the way he will rebuild the unions' power in the Legislature, I think.
Bob Dye is a Kailua-based writer and historian.
