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The City and County of Honolulu and Hawaii County did not support a contract with United Public Workers' Unit 1, according to a survey. Counties split on
UPW contract vote;
Honolulu ‘would
have voted no’By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-BulletinThe contract, announced Dec. 26, would give Unit 1's blue-collar workers an increase of 11 percent over the next two years.
The union agreed to a scaling back of vacation and sick-leave benefits for new hires.
The contract still needs approval from the rank and file, who will be voting on the contract through next week.
Honolulu Managing Director Ben Lee said city Human Resources Deputy Director Cynthia Bond abstained from voting because she did not have enough time to discuss the points with Mayor Jeremy Harris. Bond saw the final proposal only hours before the vote, Lee said, and therefore had no authorization to vote.
But because the state -- which has four votes on the employers caucus while each of the counties has one -- was joined by other counties in gaining approval for the contract, the city wasn't forced to make a vote either way, he said.
"If we had to vote on it, we would have voted no because we don't have the money to pay for the raises," Lee said.
Both Lee and Mayor Jeremy Harris are warning that it is likely that property taxes will be raised to meet the increased wages of the Unit 1 and other bargaining contracts and higher retirement contributions.
By itself, the Unit 1 contract will cost the city $3.1 million in the upcoming 2002 budget and $8.1 million the following year, Lee said. Raises for all unionized employees next year will cost the city $30 million, and the hit from higher employee retirement benefits is an additional $28 million, he said.
Representatives from all three neighbor island counties said they do not anticipate the need to hike property taxes.
However, Hawaii County Personnel Director Michael Ben said he voted against the contract because of language that set up a new deferred compensation plan for union employees.
"We had absolutely no details about the plan and how it works and its relationship with our current deferred compensation plan," Ben said.
"I understood the proposal to be a package, meaning if you rejected one item, you rejected the whole thing," he said.
Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana said his representative voted for the contract. Apana said his administration had anticipated higher employee salaries in the coming year and is prepared for them.
Beth Tokioka, spokeswoman to Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, said, "We did vote for the contract as ratified, although we did not agree with everything that was involved in the package."
Jackie Kido, Cayetano's communications director, said the governor was told by chief state negotiator Davis Yogi that the agreement had concurrence from the counties.
"The fact remains that a settlement has been reached between the state and UPW," Kido said. "Even if the Big Island is concerned that the deferred compensation language is too broad, the votes are there."