Posted on: Thursday, April 21, 2005

EDITORIAL
Arbitration doesn't balance state needs

The pay increase given to 24,000 Hawai'i Government Employees Association workers by an independent arbitrator last week makes a case for moving away from binding arbitration.

Contract after contract, binding arbitration has favored unions over management — and it's taxpayers who foot the bill.

The HGEA expressed satisfaction over the arbitrator's decision giving workers in six units pay raises averaging 5 percent in each year of a two-year contract. It's no surprise that they're pleased with that outcome — few other workers can point to that kind of a raise without an accompanying increase in responsibility.

The questions that must be answered are whether the pay raises are commensurate with other increases in the job marketplace and whether increases in government revenues are enough for the pay raises plus other needs, such as education, the environment, infrastructure and the social services safety net for those in need.

The governor has warned the pay raises will siphon money from other needs. And with the budget still in flux in the Legislature, we don't know how that will pencil out.

But what we do know is that the arbitrator is not obliged to consider the state's total financial condition in making a decision. Nor does an arbitrator consider how this will affect other public worker negotiations. Those are major flaws in the system.

Workers are entitled to share in good times just as they may face the prospect of layoffs when times are tough. But decisions on these pay raises cannot be made in a vacuum — and that is what this arbitration system has become.

There are other demands on government revenue, and the state and the counties must be able to prioritize needs.

Arbitration is necessary for certain jobs in which maintaining public safety is paramount. A strike by firefighters or police officers, for example, would be detrimental to public safety. That's not the case with most other government jobs.

Government workers deserve raises. Taxpayers deserve to see that the services their tax dollars are meant to pay for are properly provided.

Arbitration has failed to balance that equation.