Government worker contracts end June 30
By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer
With the Waikiki hotel and the West Coast dock worker talks, leadership turmoil in the United Public Workers, and the December nurses' strike, unions dominated Hawai'i's headlines for much of 2002.
Police and firefighters cannot legally strike, but state law now allows other state and county employees to do so. That, expiring contracts and a new state administration could make for a fractious summer.
Hawai'i dock workers and shipping companies are attempting to negotiate a new contract to avoid a conflict like the one that closed West Coast ports for 10 days and caused long shipping delays.
One of the biggest challenges Gov. Linda Lingle will face in 2003 is negotiating with several unions representing about 57,000 state and county employees. Her political future could depend on the results.
Advertiser library photos
The coming year is likely to see even more focus on labor groups.
Among private-sector unions facing challenges are the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142, representing Hawai'i dockworkers. The union has been in talks since earlier this year with shipping-company officials, hoping to avoid the difficulties that occurred when shipping officials shut down West Coast ports for 10 days after they accused the union of staging a work slowdown to protest the slow pace of talks.
Meanwhile, contracts expire June 30 for about 57,000 state and county workers — including state employees, police, firefighters, public-school teachers and University of Hawai'i professors.
The public-sector unions will be negotiating in a new climate, with Gov. Linda Lingle, the first Republican to occupy the state's highest office in 40 years. Lingle received the backing of few unions, with most that endorsed a candidate continuing the Hawai'i labor tradition of favoring Democrats.
"We would hope that Gov. Lingle would be inclusive," said Russell Okata, executive director of the 26,000-member Hawai'i Government Employees Association, which endorsed Democratic gubernatorial contender Mazie Hirono. "These employees we represent are the employees she'll be supervising and leading, and I'm sure she'll want to have a productive work force."
Lingle will have an additional challenge this year because of a recent legislative change in the state's collective-bargaining law that allows more public employee unions to strike, said William Puette, director of the Center for Labor Education and Research at UH-West O'ahu.
Following the 1994 HGEA strike, the law was amended to prohibit strikes during negotiations for most of the state employee labor groups, Puette said. Instead, those bargaining groups had to agree to submit to binding arbitration if talks reached impasses.
But in 2001, legislators amended the law again, and now only a handful of public-employee unions — including police and firefighters — are barred from striking, he said.
"So I'm sure the new governor is bearing in mind that the collective-bargaining law now is different and provides more public workers with the right to strike than previously," Puette said. "And their contracts are coming up in 2003."
Among the issues facing the public-sector unions are protecting benefits, said HGEA's Okata. Medical benefits are at risk in all union contracts because of steep recent increases in healthcare costs.
The HGEA also will be looking for "a decent pay raise to keep up with the cost of living," Okata said. Still, he said in early December, "For us in the public sector, it doesn't look very promising — primarily because of the economy, and I don't see the Legislature and the new administration talking much about bringing in more tax dollars."
With Hawai'i inflation running at less than 2 percent a year, some analysts say unions have less reason to win cost-of-living increases.
Privatization of some government services also is likely to be an issue in the public-sector union talks. In remarks during her campaign, Lingle said she believes privatization "is a tool government should use in appropriate cases." She pointed to the privatization of several health and human-service programs, and predicted the trend would continue for "new programs or activities."
However, she said, she was "personally committed to each and every state employee that they will not lose their job because I am governor."
Hong, who worked on Lingle's election campaign, said the governor has a "well-established" record as Maui mayor of being "fair and even-handed" in talks with public-sector unions.
