Volcanic Ash
A bad year for public unions
By David Shapiro
You know it's going to be an interesting election year when Russell Okata is worried.
Okata, leader of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, is used to having his way. He and his 40,000 politically active members helped put many Democratic politicians in office and depend on them to support union interests.
But the bond between Democrats and public workers is cracking in the face of tight state finances, Republican gains and voter concern about union influence.
Gov. Ben Cayetano pushes relentlessly for civil service reform despite being elected twice on the strength of union support. Legislative Democrats last year passed several labor reform measures over shrill union opposition.
Perhaps the most ironic sign of the times is that public employee unions don't even have a horse in the 2002 race for governor after Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, their only natural ally, dropped out to run for mayor of Honolulu.
"This is the most uncertainty I've experienced in my 30 years in the HGEA," Okata said in a recent interview.
He said the HGEA is rethinking its criteria for political endorsements this year, particularly its long-standing practice of supporting mostly incumbent Democrats.
"We have to look to the future," he said.
However they adapt, the white-collar HGEA and other public worker unions face steep obstacles to regaining past influence. Their setbacks in 2001 alone were staggering:
• All public employee unions, no matter how clean their operations, got a black eye from the federal indictment of United Public Workers leader Gary Rodrigues on multiple counts of mail fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.
• The HGEA had to accept reduced benefits for future employees to get Cayetano to approve 14-percent pay raises the union won in binding arbitration. The Legislature then voted to end the union-friendly arbitration process, forcing HGEA to risk strikes in future negotiations.
• Public school teachers and University of Hawai'i faculty endured punishing strikes to get their contracts settled.
• Intensive union lobbying failed to defeat bills in the Legislature to cap state costs for employee health plans and allow privatization of government services.
• Strains emerged between public employee unions, which would lose jobs to privatization, and private-sector unions that could gain jobs.
The four remaining candidates for governor all embrace privatization and civil service reform.
In recent elections, the HGEA has actively opposed Democrats Jeremy Harris and Ed Case and Republican Linda Lingle. That leaves Republican-turned-Democrat D.G. Anderson as the only candidate the union could endorse with a straight face.
Okata said it remains to be seen if a marriage can be made — or if Anderson could win even with HGEA backing.
He worries that the state has abandoned its longtime commitment to working people for "bottom-line government."
"The 'haves' are going to have all of the power again," Okata said. "We always felt like we had a partnership where we could be part of the decision.
Now decisions are made without our input. The morale of the employees has just plummeted."
Okata is working especially hard to restore unity between unionized workers in the public and private sectors. His guiding belief is that a rising tide lifts all ships — that gains by one union are gains for all.
"Now it's more like, " 'If we don't have it, you can't have it either,'" he said.
Okata is disappointed, but not bitter, that Cayetano has pushed civil service reform after receiving strong union support in his 1998 re-election.
" 'Betrayed' is too strong a word," Okata said. "He did what he believed was right."
David Shapiro can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.
