UPW workers gain
10% raise from talksThe binding arbitration for
Unit 10 may guide other negotiations
Prison guards, ambulance workers and licensed practical nurses were awarded 10 percent raises in two-year contracts in a binding arbitration decision that could serve as a target in other public-worker contract negotiations.
The members of bargaining Unit 10, represented by United Public Workers, will receive a 5 percent pay raise this year and another 5 percent increase next year. The arbitration award is for a two-year contract covering the period from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2005, said Ted Hong, the state's chief negotiator.
The pay raises will cost the state $5.2 million the first year and $10.3 million the second year, Hong said yesterday.
Carol Costa, city spokeswoman, said the arbitration award will cost the city $583,514 in the first year and $1,746,613 in the second year for 194 city workers employed by the departments of Emergency Services, Human Resources and the Medical Examiner's Office.
Gov. Linda Lingle said she anticipates arbitration awards and contract settlements in the coming months for nine other bargaining units whose contracts expired last June.
"There will be some tough decisions about where that money is going to come from," Lingle said. "We are not going to go along with any raid on the Hurricane Relief Fund or the rainy day fund, nor are we going to support any tax increase."
Last April, arbitrators awarded registered professional nurses a one-time raise of 3 percent in a two-year contract and gave firefighters 1.5 percent increases in each year of a two-year pact.
In September an arbitration panel awarded county police officers 4 percent pay increases in each year of a four-year contract, forcing the city to hike the vehicle weight tax to fund the pay raises.
On Monday the state entered arbitration with the 40,000-member Hawaii Government Employees Association, the state's largest public-worker union. Of the seven collective-bargaining units HGEA represents, only the unit representing the 1,200 professional nurses has settled.
According to the HGEA Web site, the union's negotiating teams are proposing 4 percent, across-the-board increases for each year of the contract period and civil-service level increases based on years of service.
Those units lost binding arbitration as a means of settling impasses in contract negotiations and were granted the right to strike in 2001. Last year, the state Legislature overrode Lingle's veto to restore arbitration for the HGEA units.
"We feel the same way we did last year: We don't think binding arbitration is the way to go. It does create a floor for the other unions -- an amount we are going to have to negotiate from," Lingle said.
The state continues negotiations with the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, two unions that have the right to strike.
Lingle said she talked to the four county mayors yesterday and that the arbitration was a subject of discussion, but she declined to say what part of the labor contracts were under discussion.
Star-Bulletin reporter Richard Borreca contributed to this report.