At the same time that Gov. David Ige has called for unspecified “labor savings right now,” more than two dozen bills continue to move through the state Legislature in the unlikely event that unionized workers receive “salary increases and other cost adjustments” when ongoing contract talks conclude.
The bills are aimed at bargaining units that represent unionized workers — and even some nonunionized state employees — across the spectrum of Hawaii’s workforce including law
enforcement, firefighters, teachers, nurses, school principals, engineers, technicians and University of
Hawaii system professors and other employees.
The bills are largely pro forma and coincide with the start of the state’s biennial budget period, according to state Rep. Richard Onishi, chairman of the House Labor and Tourism Committee, who introduced the majority of the House bills.
They include House Bills 325 Opens in a new tab, 326 Opens in a new tab, 712 Opens in a new tab, 713 Opens in a new tab, 714 Opens in a new tab, 715 Opens in a new tab, 716 Opens in a new tab, 1125 Opens in a new tab, 1126 Opens in a new tab and 1127 Opens in a new tab.
Companion bills in the Senate also remain alive.
None of the bills specify any percentages or dollar amounts for any possible salary increases involving members of the United Public Workers union, Hawaii State Teachers Association, University of Hawaii Professional Assembly and Hawaii Government Employees Association,
Hawaii’s largest public workers union, which represents nearly 29,000 active members and 11,000 so-called
associate members.
On Friday the HGEA said the bills are necessary to
address employer contributions to members’ health benefits.
But Onishi, who introduced bills on behalf of
various HGEA bargaining units, disagreed. He said health benefits are handled separately.
Instead, Onishi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the bills are “basically a procedural thing that happens every biennium. We have to introduce vehicles to put in cost items for the collective bargaining agreements, if there are any. … These are the vehicles. We don’t anticipate what the governor is planning to do with the various bargaining units.”
On Tuesday, Ige announced that the state’s gloomy economic picture
is showing signs of improvement.
Earlier forecasts had predicted a $1.4 billion shortfall in each of the next four years as a result of COVID-19’s Opens in a new tab stranglehold on Hawaii’s once red-hot tourism-
based economy.
Ige did not have an immediate update on Hawaii’s projected economic shortfall, but said Tuesday that state revenues for January remained down 9.4% from the same time the year
before.
Onishi joined others in hoping the state’s economic situation could improve further, especially with a new round of COVID-19 federal stimulus from the Biden
administration.
As Ige’s administration continues to negotiate for savings with the state’s
public workers unions, “whether he’s successful will depend on what happens in Congress in the
next month or so,” Onishi said.
Whatever happens, he said, both state lawmakers and Ige’s administration “are much more hopeful, now that we have the Biden administration instead of the Trump administration, that states will get more funding in order to meet our budgetary shortfall.”
Ige on Tuesday repeated his position that he does not want to publicly negotiate with the state’s unions, but insisted that the state needs labor savings.
In response, the HGEA said in a statement, “The governor’s financial plan is still a moving target. It is an unsettled and fluid situation as seen in the State’s improving revenue picture and the likelihood that President Biden’s $1.9 trillion federal relief plan will bring much needed aid to Hawaii. At this time it is difficult to comment on the governor’s statement about the need for labor savings because the situation continues to change.”
Whatever happens — including the unlikely event that the state’s finances improve enough to allow for raises for state workers — bills remain alive in the
Legislative to make them law.
