Unions challenge
two-year pay freeze

4 public worker unions claim
the freeze violates the
state Constitution

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

Unions representing 48,351 public employees are asking a state judge to throw out a two-year wage freeze.

The complaint filed yesterday said Act 100, passed by the 1999 Legislature, violates the state Constitution because it restricts the workers' right to engage in collective bargaining. The suit was filed by the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the Hawaii State Teachers Association, Hawaii Firefighters Association and the United Public Workers.

The unions assert that their constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law is violated because other public employees represented by the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers have been given a wage increase.

Gov. Ben Cayetano said the suit "comes as no surprise. Now we just have to wait and see what the court says. The reality of the situation is that we can't give pay raises anyway."

House Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo), who pushed the pay-freeze initiative, said, "The intention was to give us two years to get our bearings. The House is trying to contain the costs of government expenditures."

Say said public workers' pay is one of the biggest state expenditures -- over $1 billion annually. And yet, the lawmakers' role in planning that spending is reactive.

"An arbitrator, a third party in the negotiating process, makes the decision on pay and whatever is settled, we have to approve or disapprove. It's a precarious position, leaving us with the choice of doing away with programs or reducing the work force.

"We know revenues will be decreasing," he said, because of new laws lowering the income tax and the "pyramiding" of the general excise tax.

Say said he doesn't believe the state Constitution has been breached.

"Yes, the Constitution declares the collective-bargaining right. But it is the legislative prerogative to set the parameters," he said.

The HGEA, the largest public union, declared an impasse last month in negotiations covering seven bargaining units with 23,000 employees.

Students, parents and other state taxpayers are affected by the pay freeze, said Karen Ginoza, president of the HSTA, which is representing 12,000 people in current negotiations.

Teacher union negotiations "are a way to bring all parties to the table to talk about quality education. We are equal players at the table ... a very different view of collective bargaining," she said.

"Young people can start at a higher salary in a different field. We have to have high salaries to make the career of teaching attractive. It is definitely market driven," said Ginoza.

The law "puts a damper, really an interference, on the bargaining. The Legislature has to approve all cost items anyway," Ginoza said. "We think they are trying to circumvent the collective-bargaining process."