Unions hold on
to state’s pay
raise ‘ghost’

The governor says a
dead agreement is
tying up contract talks

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

An unpaid Hawaii Government Employees Association 14.5 percent wage increase continues to haunt this year's labor talks.

Although Gov. Ben Cayetano says the arbitrated HGEA award is null and void because it was not acted on by last year's Legislature, other labor unions are looking at the 14.5 percent increase as the new minimum for their pay raise.

"One of the problems is, all these (negotiations) are interlinked. The HGEA is hanging out there," Cayetano said in a meeting yesterday with the Star-Bulletin editorial board.

"Some of these guys are looking at the HGEA as a floor," he said.

The governor notes that the United Public Workers union settled for an 11.5 percent increase earlier this year.

"UPW is the only one that settled. They took a look at the financial situation," Cayetano said, praising the union for "fiscal responsibility."

But the HGEA is stepping up its criticism of the Cayetano administration, claiming that it was unable to reach agreement with the union last year, so the negotiations wound up in mandatory arbitration.

"Clearly if the governor was responsible, he would have negotiated with us two years ago, and we wouldn't have gone to arbitration, said Randy Perreira, HGEA deputy executive director.

"I think the governor is trying to deflect blame off administration failure to negotiate when they had opportunity," Perreira said.

The Legislature, however, has noted that Cayetano's budget failed to fund the HGEA pay increase.

Senate President Robert Bunda said there is "grave concern" that Cayetano's budget did not include the money needed for the HGEA pay raise.

In reaction, the Senate last week approved rolling back a planned two-year tax cut. The money saved would go to help balance the budget and pay for wage increases, the senators said.

Cayetano has rejected that tax plan and insists the tax return will continue.

"The governor made a conscious and willful choice not to include funding in the budget he gave to the Legislature," Perreira said.

And, he added, HGEA figures that by this summer the state will have a $400 million surplus.