Posted on: Friday, June 21, 2002

Island Voices
Lingle is clearly on labor's side

Micah A. Kane is chairman of the Hawai'i Republican Party.

Dick Ornellas' June 14 commentary ignores both well-known facts and Mazie Hirono's record. He says Mazie is "non-threatening" to organized labor, but he and union members should take a closer look.

Mazie stood by while the state raided the state retirement system that tens of thousands of retirees count on for security. She said nothing while the raid was going on, nor has she spoken out since the money was taken to balance a bloated state budget that she has overseen as part of the Cayetano/Hirono administration.

Mazie said nothing when Democratic senator Brian Kanno tried to restrict the right of union members to sue their union leaders.

Her one attempt to cut government red tape to help the economy is a public relations stunt.

The recent Honolulu Advertiser poll showed that nearly one-half of households with union members support Linda Lingle for governor. When you know the facts about Linda's record and her positions, it is easy to understand why working families are placing so much hope in her.

Linda's first job out of college was working for the Hawai'i Teamsters and Hotel Workers Union in Honolulu. She continues to hold strong views about the important role that unions play in assuring worker wages, benefits and dignity in the workplace.

She has come out clearly against right-to-work legislation as well as any layoffs of current government workers — neither of which will help create a major expansion of the economy or create new jobs in the private sector.

But she also knows it's important for business, labor and government to work cooperatively in order to strengthen the economy and create new jobs.

This cooperation includes cutting costly, unnecessary regulations, helping business to comply with needed health and safety regulations instead of harassing them in order to collect fines and privatizing new government functions when it makes economic sense.

Her successful record as mayor of Maui proved that this cooperative view works best.

I do agree with one statement in Mr. Ornellas' column. He said, "If Hirono plays foolish, those same citizens might view her as part and parcel of the Cayetano/Democratic Party problem and devastate her on Election Day."

Her record shows that she has already "played foolish."