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Editorials
Wednesday, September 6, 2000Power struggle grips
hotel workers unionThe issue: Supporters of Tony Rutledge have filed charges against Eric Gill, who defeated Rutledge for the top post in the hotel workers union.
LAST April Eric Gill defeated Tony Rutledge by 43 votes in the election for the top job in Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, financial secretary-treasurer. This is the union that was founded and led by Art Rutledge until he retired in favor of his son, Tony. Somehow we knew that the election was not the last word on who would lead Local 5. The Rutledges don't give up easily.
Although Gill won the top position, Rutledge supporters were re-elected to the executive board. Some of them evidently weren't willing to accept Gill's leadership. They have asked the international union to remove him, accusing him of racism, violation of bylaws and failure to resolve grievances and complete contracts.
Gill responds that Rutledge is trying to regain control of the union by making false accusations. He claims Rutledge is trying to divide the membership by bringing up race. Gill says the president of the international union "is well aware of questionable things in Tony's regime and that irregularities showed in an audit."
Orlando Soriano, the local president, said he was recently notified he was being removed from the board of Unity House, a joint organization of Local 5 and the Teamsters local, which Rutledge still heads. Soriano ran on the Rutledge slate in April, but said he suspected that his refusal to take a stand against Gill led to his removal.
In addition, Mel Kahele, president of Teamsters Local 996, said Unity House stopped payment on a $10,000 check written to the Teamsters to help pay for a training session for shop stewards. Kahele said he thought payment was stopped because he allowed Gill to speak at the training session.
Rutledge is clearly trying to discredit and undermine Gill with a view to regaining control of the hotel workers union. The hardball tactics are familiar to those who have observed the Rutledges, father and son, in action over the decades.
Meanwhile the longtime leader of the United Public Workers union, Gary Rodrigues, has been accused of a number of abuses of power by union members as reported by the Star-Bulletin's Ian Lind. Rodrigues has thus far survived efforts to remove him from office, but doubts about his suitability to serve remain.
Rodrigues and Rutledge are examples of labor leaders who refuse to relinquish control -- in Rutledge's case, even though he lost the election. Such people, with their tactics of intimidation, do the labor movement no good.
Privatizing the FAA
AS Hawaii's economy relies more on increased tourism, it lies at the mercy of an air transportation system that seems to have been brought to its knees.
Deregulation of the industry in 1978 has resulted in reduced air fares and increased air traffic at a level that the Federal Aviation Administration has been unable to control. Turning air traffic control over to private enterprise may be the only way to get planes running on time.
Since deregulation, the number of passengers has tripled and average air fares are 40 percent lower, adjusting for inflation, according to the New York Times.
By 2010, the FAA predicts that the number of airline passengers will rise by an additional 59 percent, mostly at the nation's 28 largest airports, including Honolulu. Flight delays already are on the rise -- by nearly 50 percent in the last five years -- and are expected to grow exponentially as the skies get more crowded.
Airlines blame the FAA's antiquated air traffic control system while the FAA blames airlines for scheduling more takeoffs and landings than the system can handle. Both blame Congress for not spending enough money on the system.
A blue-ribbon panel set up by Congress concluded in 1996 that the FAA "lacks the organizational, management and financial wherewithal to keep pace with the dynamic aviation community." It predicted "gridlock soon after the turn of the century" because of increased demand, reduction in capacity and the FAA's "continued reliance on outdated equipment."
The FAA has improved somewhat in the last five years but problems remain. While the FAA promises "marginal" changes to try keeping up, critics say the only remedy is to change the economic incentives at the heart of the industry.
The government has refused to adopt a fee-based system that would force users to pay their fair share; small planes get the same priority and pay the same price as jumbo jets.
Rather than continuing to expect a government agency to apply elementary supply-demand economics, it may be wiser to turn the entire operation over to an entity that will do so naturally.
Germany and New Zealand now contract out air traffic services. Nav Canada, the world's only private company to run a national air traffic control system, has reduced air traffic delays, enhanced safety, cut costs, revamped its technology and adopted a cost-accounting system enabling it to charge appropriate fees.
Rather than trying to revamp the FAA, the United States might do better to privatize air traffic control, using Nav Canada as a model. This is of vital concern to Hawaii. The tourism industry could not withstand the gridlock that the congressional panel envisioned.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
