CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
Pictured are electric vehicles parked in a designated area located in the Parking A structure across from the International Arrivals Building at the airport.
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With a daily average of more than 54,000 people touching down and taking off at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, an empty parking stall can be hard to find. This week, due to spring break travel, construction work and the growing popularity of electric vehicles, the airport’s lots repeatedly hit capacity. To promote green transportation, in 2012, Hawaii enacted a law allowing EVs to get free parking at airports statewide. With EV drivers (airport and airline workers included), now snapping up between 10 percent and 20 percent of stalls at the Honolulu airport, the state should consider phasing out the freebie.
Public-sector unions lead the way
This is not news; it’s really quite old. Hawaii again leads the nation in union membership, now standing at 23.1 percent of the statewide workforce. While Hawaii’s long union history once involved a large contingent of private and public labor, the state owes its big union profile to government employee unions.
Recent court rulings have somewhat constrained public-worker unions nationally, but membership is still holding strong here.