Hawaii is one of the most highly unionized states, and Maui is a highly unionized county. Although the public employee unions and the governor are butting heads over the fallout from the economic crisis, it is notable that in private business, the unions and management are not.
For example, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers quietly agreed last year to defer an agreed pay increase for six months and to extend their contract for a year. Ray Shimabuku, the Maui business representative of Local 1186, which represents electricians in commercial and residential work, said: "We're working with employers."
This despite the fact that electricians have been far less affected by the recession than, say, carpenters. Brian Lee, the research and communications director for the union, said: "Our union is not in as bad shape as some others, but we are trying to be proactive." A year ago, Local 1186 had zero members unemployed; lately that has risen to around 5 percent, he said. Many construction trades unions have seen half or more of their members on the bench.
Al Itamoto, of the Electrical Contractors Association, said: "Both labor and management realize the economy is going through something extraordinary that will require effort from everybody. What affects contractors affects everybody. If they don't get contracts, laborers won't be working. We have to work together."
This mutuality has been more the rule than the exception so far during the recession. Willie Kennison, Maui district director of Local 142 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said: "It's no fault of the employees that the economy is bad." Their reaction has been to work with employers to try to keep employment stable.
In the hotel business, that has meant negotiating to keep senior members at or near full-time work, while accepting furloughs or layoffs for workers without seniority, but with conditions to maintain status for the hoped-for day when the workers are called back. "We want to keep them working full time, where they don't go to parttime or temporary, that's a big one," said Kennison.
In the agricultural bargaining units, furloughs due to natural conditions have long been customary, and the union and the plantations have a history of managing their way through periods of slack demand. There has been some adjustment with Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. management.
"The main difference is how furloughs are handled. They used to all take at once, now employees can adjust the time to take their furlough," Kennison said.
Chris Benjamin, general manager at HC&S, said: "I think Local 142 on Maui has helped us in managing our operations. I find they are understanding and helpful and have been for a long time."
Like the IBEW and the contractors, the ILWU and the plantation have searched for nonfinancial means of helping the businesses survive.
At HC&S, Benjamin said: "We are developing programs that benefit both union workers and management. We set up trade programs a year ago" that help workers move up in skills and opportunity. "At the union's request, last year we transferred to a medical trust fund, so the union would have the benefit of large-scale purchasing."
The IBEW has not yet made concessions on work rules, but Lee said: "We had a two-day summit with the Electrical Contractors Association at the end of May to discuss everything under the sun to help the employers - productivity, marketing, enforcement."
Two local facilitators were hired to help manage the meeting. The two sides consulted with people from Mainland, "but it wasn't as if they had some magic bullets."
Itamoto said one thing union workers and management can do to help each other now is to unite against unlicensed or underhanded contractors who "are taking work away from us."
"One problem we face is that electricians need to be licensed, and electrical contractors need to be licensed, but we find some contractors are getting away with things, some rules are being bent, some are being worked around," he said.
He said there is now a labor-management initiative to try to forestall contractors who are operating out of bounds.
"We need to start working together, rather than bumping heads," Itamoto said.
Benjamin said he used to work in the auto industry in Detroit, where the relations between the United Auto Workers and management were not cooperative.
"The contrast to that sort of union-management relations is night and day," he said.
Kennison said he sees a difference in attitude now.
"In the past, the members felt benefits would never go away," he said. "Now there is a feeling, among the older people, the middle-aged and the younger people, especially the younger workers, they are concerned what will happen to their jobs. They have mortgages, they have bills to pay.
"In the past, when the economy was strong, they felt, I could just find work elsewhere."
* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.
