Tough economy lengthens
time to reach deals
in isle labor talks
Tougher economic times and uncertainty about the future are dictating a new style of local labor negotiations characterized by protracted talks and more intense rhetoric.
"(Negotiations) take longer and are more difficult," said Claude Matsumoto, vice president of negotiation service for the Hawaii Employers Council, which represents many local employers at the bargaining table.
In the latest example, striking Teamsters and TheBus manager Oahu Transit Services Inc. have both taken to the airwaves with ads designed to make their case to the public, even as contract talks drag into their fourth week. The two sides have not met at all since Wednesday.
In spite of it all, Matsumoto said the success rate for negotiations locally is still high.
"In the vast majority of cases, they're able to reach amicable solutions, and that is the bottom line," he said.
Of three recent contract settlements, negotiations between the Hawaii Newspaper Guild and the owner of the Honolulu Advertiser, Gannett Co., took the longest at more than a year.
The union achieved a 5 1/2 percent salary increase over the five-year contract, said Wayne Cahill, the guild's administrative officer.
"We started in April 2002 and ratified Aug. 9, 2003," Cahill said. "Salarywise, we got some pay increases -- not big ones. We improved sick leave, also preserved the medical plan and added a 401(k)."
Still, for Cahill there is no question that conditions have changed.
"It's much harder now to negotiate a contract, and it takes progressively longer to get contracts nowadays," he said.
Cahill said that in the past, when jobs were scheduled to be eliminated due to advances in technology, retraining or attrition was the preferred route. Not so today.
"Now they want to do it immediately rather than waiting for attrition," he said.
In Waikiki, settlements between Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 5 and management at the area's largest hotels, such as Hilton and Sheraton, were achieved without strikes. The hotels agreed to improvements in areas such as pension rights and job security, as well as wage increases.
"I think (the union) got good settlements for employees," said labor attorney Mike Nauyokas. "The employers gave them raises, which is significant in what is alleged to be a down economy."
Nauyokas believes limiting subcontracting work at the hotels was one of the biggest achievements for the union.
"It certainly limited the employer's right to subcontract," he said. "Some of the stuff they had already contracted out they can do, but they are limited in further subcontracting."
Changes in leadership at two unions, Local 5 and the Hawaii Nurses Association, have had a significant impact on negotiations, said Lawrence Boyd, an economist at the Center for Labor Education and Research at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu.
The negotiations and subsequent strike by the Hawaii Nurses Association are a good example, Boyd said.
"They certainly changed their tactics and were much more aggressive in negotiations," he said.
As a result, nearly 1,400 nurses at three major hospitals won a 21 percent wage increase over three years, as well as improvements in benefits and working conditions. But there was a cost. Nurses went on strike from early December 2002 until Jan. 16.
More union members are directly participating in talks.
"That's a new trend. More than the usual number of employees got involved," said Matsumoto, of the Employers Council.
With the new group of faces, negotiations took longer than previous talks to move forward, he said.
"In the old days, you may have been negotiating with the same guy for 15 years. These days, you have to feel each other out, and that takes time," he said.
Hawaii's public workers, except for firefighters, police and nurses, faced similarly tough talks and did not receive wage increases during contract negotiations earlier this year.
Each union settled contracts slightly differently. The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, which represents professors, agreed to several noncost changes in the contract and to come back to the table next year to discuss wages.
The Hawaii Government Employees Association, the state's largest union with more than 20,000 white-collar members, also did not get a pay raise. HGEA agreed to extend the collective bargaining agreements until June 2004.
The United Public Workers and the Hawaii State Teacher's Association did not see wage increases in their contract, but the levels of seniority pay increases, called step increases, were compressed for UPW members so they would climb the seniority ladder at a faster rate.
Public workers also won assurances from the Lingle administration that the state would continue to pay 60 percent of their medical insurance. Teachers won a slightly better deal, getting 65 percent of medical insurance covered.
Firefighters for the counties and the state won a 3 percent raise over the life of a two-year contract.
But the raise was the result of binding arbitration, an option now available to more government workers. Under old state law, only police, firefighters and nurses were able to go to binding arbitration when contract negotiations failed.
The Legislature overrode a veto this year to pass a law permitting the HGEA to use binding arbitration to resolve labor contracts.
Nurses and police have not yet had awards determined through binding arbitration.
