Knowledge is power....do you know who your key legislators are? All of our elected officials have a direct impact on issues that affect us every day. If a chair of a committee chooses not to even introduce a bill or hear a bill to open it up to the public for testimony, there is no chance for it to become law.

This can go either way -- if it is a harmful bill, it is for the best if it is not even heard in its respective committee. On the other hand, if this is a bill we want, it is crucial that it gets introduced and heard, so it can move forward in the legislative process. The legislator in charge of hearing bills is the Committee Chair (i.e. the one with the direct power to advance or kill a bill). See below for the committees that relate to issues specific to our membership (Labor Committee, obviously, for our union brothers and sisters in tourism and all industries and the Transportation Committee for our brothers and sisters in longshore or general trades at companies with large vehicles) and the chairs and vice chairs that run them.

Relationships matter. Pictured here is Hawaii Division with Representative Richard Onishi on Opening Day 2018. Rep. Onishi is chairing the House Committee on Labor and Tourism this session, so he is a crucial connection to have.