Posted on: Monday, April 19, 2004

ISLAND VOICES
Arbitrated ruling our only course

By Randy Perreira
Deputy executive director of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association

The Hawai' i Government Employees Association was forced to seek an arbitrated award in January because the governor failed to practice what she has lately been preaching — she refused to negotiate a settlement with us.

In fact, the employers made no offers to our union until we reached the point of arbitration, at which time they offered no increase the first year and 1 percent the second, and sought to discontinue our merit-based step-movement plans.

Our proposal was modeled after other arbitrated awards for police, firefighters and nurses, amounting to 4 percent per year with step movements.

The resulting HGEA award is hardly the budget-buster that the governor has been hyping. Many employees will see nothing more than a 5 percent increase for the last six months of the contract, which does not cover the increased cost of family medical premiums that in some cases increased $300 per month. Coupled with a 2 percent inflation rate, our lowest-paid employees still do not keep up. Clearly, nobody will get rich off this award.

During bargaining, did the governor know that the employers could afford a 4 percent plan? If so, why did she not negotiate with us?

The governor has suggested that the costly settlement with the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly (34.8 percent over six years) is an example of what true collective bargaining can do. We will never know if the package she now considers affordable would have been acceptable to our members — she never gave it a chance.

The governor is trying to get away with proclaiming our award as unaffordable in future years, but I am confident that the public will see through her sleight-of-hand.

Finally, your paper betrayed a lack of informed reasoning by condemning the arbitration process. I will be the first to advocate the benefits of "true" collective bargaining. The process works, given the chance; witness the faculty settlement. So rather than cripple the state with a strike, we arbitrated our dispute with a neutral panel.

Your editorial board should expose the governor's deceit and call on her to negotiate with her employees. The media have to call the governor on her game; she cannot say one thing by negotiating with the faculty, then do another by criticizing our award. Our members wanted to settle at the table in good faith negotiations, as it should be. Unfortunately, we were never given the chance.