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A fierce showdown is shaping up between Gov. Ben Cayetano and public worker unions in the next Legislature over pay raises and civil service reform. It’s high noon
for governor and
public worker unionsCayetano said this week that he'll veto any move by lawmakers to fund a 15-percent pay raise that an arbiter awarded last year to the Hawaii Government Employees Association.
The governor says the state's economy won't bear that much and the union says it won't negotiate a smaller amount. Both claim the other's position is illegal.
State negotiations with other unions also are testy. The United Public Workers authorized a strike vote to get 15 percent. The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly filed a notice of impasse after the state refused any pay raises in a new contract. Both issues will come to a head in January, just as the Legislature starts its new session.
In his only labor concession, the governor says he'll offer pay raises to public school teachers. But without details, there's no telling if he'll satisfy the teachers.
While the issue on the table is pay, it may turn out to be more about reforming the state's civil service and collective bargaining laws.
Cayetano submitted ambitious proposals to the last Legislature to streamline civil service and restore a reasonable balance of power between state administrators and employee unions. He targeted costly benefits and work rules that inhibit state response to pressing problems.
Public employee unions had enough friends in the Legislature to gut the initiative, but it may be a different story this year.
The pay raises give Cayetano real leverage. While he truly believes the arbitrated raises are too rich in this economy, the fiscal crisis has eased enough that he can meet the unions halfway on pay if they'll budge on civil service reform.
The unions are losing ground in this year's election and face a different Legislature next year. Senate President Norman Mizuguchi, the unions' chief protector, became so unpopular that he retired rather than face certain election defeat. Leeward Sen. Brian Kanno, another dutiful guardian of union interests, is tripping over his tongue apologizing to constituents for his past sins.
On the other side of the picture, House Majority Leader Ed Case rolled to easy victory in the primary election despite opposition from public employee unions out to punish him for backing civil service reform.
The new Legislature will still be friendly to labor, but lawmakers will be more open to fair reform. And that's all Cayetano wants. He, too, is a friend of labor who was endorsed by most unions in both of his campaigns for governor. To his credit, he didn't promise unions a key to the state treasury to get those endorsements.
There are reasonable grounds for agreement if both sides want to be reasonable. It depends mostly on how the unions play it. If they can still muster the votes to bottle up civil service reform, they may wait out the last two years of Cayetano's term and hope to elect the more compliant Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono to replace him.
But that has risks, as Hirono is no shoo-in. Unions could take two lean years on pay raises only to end up dealing with a committed civil service reformer like Linda Lingle or Jeremy Harris as the new governor.
It should worry them that Harris just won runaway re-election as Honolulu mayor in spite of HGEA and UPW support for his opponent, Mufi Hannemann.
David Shapiro is managing editor of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at dshapiro@starbulletin.com.
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