As an organization, the ILWU sat on the bench in the primary election for governor. We had an “open endorsement” in that race which allows our members to vote for anyone they choose but prohibits the union and its leadership from publicly supporting any particular candidate. This meant no signholding, no house-to-house, no phone calls or mailouts to members for any candidate—no official support at all.
For the General Election, it will be completely different—the ILWU Local 142 is endorsing Mazie Hirono for Governor and our support will be considerable.
As a democratic, member-based union, the ILWU has always had an extensive grassroots network that can reach every one of our 23,000 members. Over the past 12 months, we have worked hard to revitalize this network by recruiting, educating, and activating scores of new union activists.
This endorsement of Mazie Hirono means that hundreds of union activists throughout our membership network will be out there holding signs, walking door-to-door, making phone calls and educating our members on the issues. Our entire organization and our energy can now be focused on reaching out to thousands of our members and their families to make sure Mazie Hirono and Matt Matsunaga win in November.
Why Mazie and Matt?
The ILWU has worked with Mazie for 22 years, starting in 1980 when she first ran for the State House of Representatives and from 1994 when she was elected Lieutenant Governor. This is a long time and a lot happens in 22 years, but throughout this period, Mazie earned our respect and continued support, because of her solid and consistent record as a strong leader and advocate for the working families of Hawaii. Mazie puts people first, but she does so by working to balance the interests and needs of business, government, and workers. This balancing act is sometimes the hardest way to lead, because it involves getting different groups to work together and getting people or businesses to accept compromises. Matt Matsunaga is a relative newcomer to public service, but his father U.S. Representative Spark Matsunaga had a long history of dedicated service to the working families of Hawaii. From what we can see, Matt is following in his father’s footsteps and shares our vision of a fair and just Hawaii where people come first.
Mazie is the only candidate for governor who has the trust, respect, and a proven ability to get business, labor, and government working together to solve problems and make Hawaii an even better to place to live, work, and play. Mazie Hirono as Governor and Matt Matsunaga as Lieutenant Governor is the leadership team Hawaii needs at this time.
Change for the worse
Linda Lingle’s idea of “change” and a “new beginning” is nothing more than a return to the old Hawaii and the dominance of private profit, private property, and private privilege. This is “change” for the worse that will come at the expense of working people. It would tear down years of gains made in advancing workers’ rights and dismantle years of expanding government services to include programs most needed and used by working families. Lingle and her Republicans pay lip service to workers’ rights, but continually propose “changes” aimed at taking away these rights and crippling the one organization through which workers defend their rights— labor unions. In their party platform, the Republicans say they support the “concept” of collective bargaining, but apparently they don’t support the “right” to bargain collectively— they introduced House Bill 877 to —continued on page 7
