Reserve call-up could remove 9,000 from jobs
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By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
From the Honolulu police and fire departments to the U.S. Postal Service to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, some of Hawai'i's major employers could lose up to 10 percent of their citizen-soldier workers if troops from the Hawai'i National Guard and military Reserves are needed for a war with Iraq.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
The potential loss of 9,000 employees to a war that has yet to begin means making workplace plans based mainly on asking others to work extra shifts for overtime. But in a tight economy where every extra dollar hurts, no one can predict how much overtime will have to be spent.
Brig. Gen. Glen Sakagawa is one of the heads of the U.S. Postal Service in Honolulu, but could be called up for service in Iraq.
"It's difficult to plan for the absence of these individuals," said Fred Kobashikawa, spokesman for Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc., which has about 15 employees in the Guard or Reserves. "We don't know when they're going to get called or how long they'll be on active duty."
The loss of jobs could come in places such as Aloha Airlines, which has 33 of its 230 pilots in the Hawai'i Air National Guard, to the state Legislature where Rep. Mark Takai, D-34th (Newtown, Pearl City, Royal Summit) is a preventative medical officer and captain in the Hawai'i Army National Guard. The Verizon Hawai'i work force of 2,400 employees includes about 2 percent who are in the Guard and Reserves.
Brig. Gen. Glen Sakagawa of the Hawai'i National Guard is prepared to ship out if the country should go to war with Iraq. And as one of the heads of the U.S. Postal Service in Honolulu, Sakagawa also knows how hard it is to plan to lose nearly 3,000 postal employees, about 10 percent of the work force, for an indefinite time.
But as both a soldier and a manager, Sakagawa said he knows what has to be done.
"It's a national mission as far as I'm concerned," said Sakagawa, commanding general of the 29th Separate Infantry Brigade (Enhanced) that covers troops from Minnesota, Oregon, Idaho, California and Hawai'i and includes the 100th Battalion of the Army Reserve. "As an employer, even if I have to pay overtime, I'll do whatever it takes."
Despite a heavy recruiting effort over the past several years, the Honolulu Police Department remains 291 officers short of its authorized strength. It also faces the possibility of losing some 150 additional officers to a Guard or Reserve call-up.
"Even though we're still trying to fill our vacancies," said police Capt. Mark Nakagawa, "we won't compromise essential services."
The department plans to move officers around to cover patrol shifts and use overtime if necessary "to make sure the public doesn't realize any loss of response," Nakagawa said.
The Honolulu Fire Department's latest class of 44 recruits will leave the department still short 10 firefighters. And it could lose another 76 firefighters to the Guard and Reserves.
But Takai believes there are bigger issues other than staffing should all of the Guard and Reserves be sent to war.
"If we get called up, we're in serious trouble," Takai said. "That means we're in a war or conflict that is pretty huge."
