The International Longshore and Warehouse Union on Monday endorsed Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s re-election campaign.
The state’s largest private-sector labor union, with 18,000 members, said the Democrat has consistently supported workers’ rights.
Abercrombie is facing state Sen. David Ige in the Democratic primary.
Donna Domingo, president of ILWU Local 142, said at a news conference at the union’s headquarters on Atkinson Drive that the governor has "always been on the side of workers," adding, "He understands the critical role ILWU plays in many of Hawaii’s most important industries, which include tourism and agriculture and shipping."
Abercrombie said the state’s economic recovery has allowed organized labor to "make its comeback from the recession that has faced everybody throughout the nation, and particularly in Hawaii, with furloughs and layoffs and cutbacks, personnel changes all in the negative."
"This endorsement tells me that the ILWU says that we’re ready for our comeback, that we’re on our way to seeing to it that Hawaii stays on the comeback trail economically, socially and politically."
The governor also called for an increase to the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage, which has not been raised in Hawaii since 2007. The state House and Senate have traded competing versions of a minimum wage bill and hope to have a compromise before the session ends in May.
Abercrombie has been known as a labor advocate for most of his political career. But many public-sector labor unions were critical of the governor early in his term for proposing benefits cuts and for imposing a contract on the Hawaii State Teachers Association. The teachers union, which endorsed Abercrombie in 2010, has backed Ige this year.
Public-sector unions, including the teachers union, have received pay raises and a more equitable split on health insurance premiums as the state’s economy has recovered from the recession.
