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Union
endorsements still
key in some races

Amid calls for reform, public
employee unions look to
have promises kept

ANALYSIS

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By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

Public employee unions, long considered to be at the top of the legislative food chain at the state Legislature, have reason to be nervous as they enter the post-Labor Day election season.

For the second election in a row, the unions are looking for candidates who will pledge to pay their members a promised or agreed-to pay raise.

In 1998 the issue was whether politicians, including Gov. Ben Cayetano, would fund an already approved pay raise. This year, the Hawaii Government Employees Association has won an arbitrated settlement, but the Legislature has yet to pay for it and the governor is saying, "Don't do it."

Legislators in 1998 were also asked by unions not to change their collective-bargaining laws, but the Legislature and Cayetano both spent much of 1999 and 2000 exploring ways of changing those same laws and rules.

"I think there is a gut feeling that reform is way overdue," says Rep. Ed Case, a target of public employee unions for the second election in a row.

"Overall, are unions powerful? No, I don't think so," he says.

HGEA leader Russell Okata says his union has been busy, and notes that Case's is one race that has drawn the union's attention.

"Ed Case just has a philosophical disagreement with public workers' right to bargain," Okata says.

Besides opposing Case, the HGEA also is looking to elect Randy Kusaka in the Red Hill-to-Aiea 33rd House District. He is opposed by Blake Oshiro in the Democratic primary. There is no general-election opposition.

"The public unions' influence is way overstated," Case claims. "I think they have lost credibility within the general public and their own membership, but there are isolated occasions where they can be effective.

"There are key races, such as the challenge to (Sen.) Brian Kanno, that are very important to them," Case says.

Kanno, former chairman of the Labor Committee, has come under attack from small-business groups, who say his pro-labor stance is hurting the state's economy.

Kanno -- who has been endorsed by the nurses union, the HGEA, AFL-CIO and the ILWU, and is also hoping for the teachers union endorsement -- says union support can mean sign-holding supporters, letter writers and general campaign help.

"Where they have a key legislator they want to protect or get them in there, they (unions) can be a factor," says Case, a Democrat who has been in office since 1994.

During the legislative session, the biggest challenge to the public unions was Cayetano's call to reform the civil service system, which would have resulted in reduced benefits for future public workers.

The resulting bill was criticized by Cayetano and Case as being too weak, but it was still approved, as the governor called it a "good first step."

Another legislator who wants changes in the state's civil service laws and was not endorsed by the unions is Republican Sen. Sam Slom from Hawaii Kai. He agrees the unions are not as powerful as in the past, but warns they still have clout.

"One of the secrets of the union power is their ability to mobilize," says Slom, who says Republicans and small-business interests can not match the ability of HGEA and United Public Workers to put workers on a street holding signs for designated candidates.

"Still, if a person is perceived as being involved in community, it will override other considerations and endorsements," Slom says.

Besides, as former speaker of the House Rep. Joe Souki says, if the district does not have a lot of union members in it, a union endorsement is not going to do much.

But he notes that in a close race, one that is going to be won by 75 votes or less, "the union can make or break a candidate."