Unlike our other groupings which are based on a single industry, our general trades grouping is made up of many different industries. Some of the larger industries within general trades are: Supermarkets (Foodland, Star Market, Sack ’n Save); Health Care; Macadamia Nut; Automotive; Construction related; Trucking; and Bakeries.
Except for industries that depend on tourism and the spending of tourism workers, most of our general trades companies were not affected by the downturn in tourism after 9/ 11. Some industries, like health care and construction have done well throughout this period.
Supermarkets are up against a nationwide trend where “big box” national chain stores like K-Mart and Wal-Mart have been taking market share from the more locally based food markets, resulting in the loss of business and the layoff of thousands of workers. The big stores will come into a community and sell at lower prices until the competition is wiped out, then raise prices. This practice has led to wide-spread community opposition, which slowed, but has not prevented, the expansion
of these national chains into Hawaii. Our local supermarkets are up against a future of intense competition where employers will constantly try to get fewer workers to do the work.
Bad weather and insect damage resulted in a 5% smaller harvest in 2003 for our macadamia nut companies. Lower priced nuts from Australia, a major competitor for Hawaii, also caused a drop of about 2 cents a pound in the price of nuts.
The Mauna Loa factory was purchased in 2000 by the Shansby Group, an equity investment partnership based in San Francisco. They have a long term contract to purchase nuts from the ML Macadamia Group, which owns the orchards. The
farm price for nuts have fallen from a high of 67 cents per pound in 2000 to 57 cents a pound in 2003. This means our macadamia members will be faced by continued pressure from management to cut costs and layoff workers. Wage gains averaged 1.68% during this triennium.
Nationwide, health care and construction are two of only a handful of industries that are expanding and hiring more workers. Almost all other industries have cut jobs as productivity gains allow management to get more work out of fewer and fewer workers. This is the main reason behind the so-called “jobless recovery” where the U.S. economy is expanding but at the same time jobs are being cut. ◆
Organizing the Unorganized
Our organizing record in this triennium reinforces the necessity of going into an organizing drive with the goal of getting a first contract.
Our organizing department reported 16 wins involving 1,148 workers, but only seven of these wins achieved first contracts and another five will likely get a first contact.This is a gain of only 388 members.
In the remaining 5 drives, the company went out of business, laidoff all the workers, decertified the union, or the election was so close that it will be extremely difficult to get a fair contract. These organizing drives involved 781 workers. ◆
ILWU Memorial Assn. Building Completed
The 22nd Convention approved the renovation of the ILWU’s 50-year old building at 451 Atkinson Drive. We decided to proceed with the renovation after the financial shock of 9/11, because leases and contracts had already been signed and it would have been more costly to delay the work.
Major construction began in January 2002 and was completed on schedule in December 2002. The work required
the temporary relocation of all of our offices to 720 Kapiolani Blvd.
It appears that the total cost of renovation will be just slightly over budget at around $5.1 million. This includes the architectural design, construction, furnishing, phone and air conditioning systems, and the cost of relocation during the con-
struction.
Considering some of the unusual events of this triennium, our union’s finances are in fairly good shape. The only reason our budget is severely strained in the coming triennium, is due to one reason—the need to contribute $2.5 million to our staff
and officers pension fund in the next three years. This is a problem faced by many pension funds, due to low return in the current stock market and the loss of value following the stock collapse of high technology companies in 2000. ◆
Education and Membership Services
A total of 26 education programs attended by 694 people were held in the last triennium. This included 24 classes for rank and file members on grievance handling, leadership, political action, and advanced leadership training at the labor institute. Two classes were held for full-time officers. In addition, four Local 142 members attended the International’s Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Institute in Palm Springs in September 2002, one of whom also helped with instruction.
All classes were put on hold for six months between 9/2001 and 3/2002, until it became clear that the tourism industry was recovering.
Membership Services
Our Membership Services Program has continued to provide needed social services and assistance to members, their families, and to retirees. After 9/11, we lobbied the state for extended unemployment benefits for laid off hotel workers and organized several food distributions through the Hawaii Food Bank.
The increasing cost of prescription drugs is a serious hardship for our retirees. In 1999, the University Health Alliance canceled their prescription drug plan for our sugar retirees on the Big Island. When all attempts to find a replacement plan
failed, we set up our own program through HMSA. To keep the plan affordable for our retirees, we did all the administrative work such as billing and collecting monthly premiums. In this way, we were able to provide some benefit to our retirees until November 2002.
The problem of high drug costs for seniors is a national problem that can only be solved by putting more federal dollars into Medicare to provide our seniors with drug coverage, by controlling the high prices set by pharmaceutical companies, or by
controlling costs through a single payer system such as the Canadian health system. ◆
Contract Administration
Legal costs related to arbitration remain a major expense. About half of this cost comes from the expense of having our law firms do a preliminary review of a large number of grievances that our business agents submit to employers with “an intent
to arbitrate.” Around 130 grievances reach the intent to arbitrate stage each year, and only the more serious cases are reviewed by our attorneys.
Due to the impact an arbitration can have on the interpretation of contract terms, our Local Executive Committee (composed of the three titled officers and four division directors) must approve all cases actually submitted to arbitration.
Consequently, a much smaller number of cases (about 20 a year) go to arbitration, which can cost over $20,000 a case and much more depending on the complexity of the case. This cost includes the fees charged by the arbitrator, the administrative
costs of holding a hearing, and the legal work that goes into preparing and presenting our member’s grievance.
New cases continue to enter the system as fast as old cases are resolved. This suggests that our grievance workload will remain this high in the near future. ◆
Union Political Action
Our Divisions, members, and retirees put in a tremendous effort in the 2002 elections to suport union endorsed candidates. Their efforts went a long way in educating our members on the issues, keeping labor friendly candidates in office, and
maintaining strong Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Unfortunately, their efforts were not enough to elect Mazie Hirono and defeat Linda Lingle. Lingle’s victory is a major setback for the working people of Hawaii. It has been 40 years since Hawaii has had a Republican governor. Lingle’s win was by no means a sign that Hawaii’s people support the pro-business ideology and platform of the Republican Party. If this were the case, the Republicans would have made some gains in House and Senate races. Instead, they lost 4 seats in the House, which now prevents them from pulling bills out of committee and forcing votes on bad bills. The Republicans gained 3
additional seats in the senate for a total of 5 out of 25 seats.
Lingle won because Republican candidates and the Party concentrated their efforts on her election and a lot of money from outside Hawaii helped pay for a sophisticated and calculated campaign. This would not have been enough to win, except Ben Cayetano alienated a lot of voters, the Democrats were divided and disorganized,and Mazie Hirono’s campaign suffered a number of set backs because of Jeremy Harris.
As Governor, Lingle has the power to appoint the department heads of all state agencies, state judges, and hundreds of members of boards and commissions. As expected, she appointed like-minded people who favor management and business over labor and working people. Lingle’s veto of 50 bills after the 2003 session was also consistent with her Republican outlook.
Maintaining strong Democratic majorities in the Hawaii legislature is vitally important in 2004 because this is the only way to limit the damage and prevent the kind of attacks on working people that we see on the national level. ◆