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On Politics Richard Borreca |
Lingle-UHPA contract
puts Democrats in a bindUp for debate in the coming weeks will be the issue of just what sort of a bill for the University of Hawaii faculty is Republican Governor Lingle handing the Democrats.
Is the Legislature paying for two years of a six-year contract, are today's lawmakers obligating future legislators to the entire contract or is it simply pay as you go?
The total contract that the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly negotiated with Lingle last week is worth $168 million over the life of the six-year deal, but exactly how much the Legislature can allocate remains a question.
Lawmakers researching the law are saying, off the record, that it appears that the Legislature can only pay for items included within the two-year budget.
The UHPA contract starts out with a retroactive payment of 1 percent starting from July 2003 and grants another 3 percent to be paid beginning in July.
According to some legislators, that's it for this Legislature; it can't vote for the agreed-to wage increases of 2, 5, 9 and 11 percent that bring the contract up to its conclusion on July 1, 2008. All the current legislators can provide are wage increases during the two-year budget period; they can't vote for money in another budget period, lawmakers argue.
UHPA argues that while the actual money may not be appropriated in one $168-million chunk, the contract is real and if the state doesn't pay, the union will go to court -- not the bargaining table -- to get satisfaction.
If Democrats really want to push it, they could actually say the act of passing one part of the UHPA settlement binds future Legislatures to pay the rest of the contract and because they cannot do that, they must reject this contract.
It has been Lingle's contention that "when the parties are allowed to bargain in good faith, without having their hands tied by a third-party arbitrator," good things happen. If legislators dismiss the UHPA contract because of the lengthy pay-out, Democrats would be able to counter Lingle by saying she came up with a contract the Legislature was forced to reject and their preferred method of negotiation, binding arbitration, has even more merit.
Former Democratic Gov. John Waihee was able to secure four-year contracts with public workers without the same rumblings, leading Republicans now to feel like Charlie Brown asking, "Why's everybody picking always on me?"
Setting aside the legal argument, Democrats will have to solve a political problem. Perhaps some Democrats would see it as a victory for the Legislature to reject the UHPA contract, but if they have any visions of selling the public on that idea, they also will have to explain why not giving money to union workers is actually good for public unions.
So in the strange world of Hawaii politics, the public will only see that when Republican Lingle's signature is on the contract of a generous labor settlement, it is something for Democrats to oppose.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Richard Borreca writes on politics every Sunday in the Star-Bulletin. He can be reached at 525-8630 or by e-mail at rborreca@starbulletin.com.
