On Aug. 18, District Council 50 — which is comprised of the painters, glaziers, floorlayers and tapers unions — launched its “Local Jobs for Local People” campaign at a public rally joined by other unions and private businesspeople.
The message is clear. With the scarcity of jobs, the few available in Hawaii should go to those workers who live, play and work in Hawaii, not to imported mainland workers or illegal immigrants. While it’s not a new objective, there has been more awareness raised about the issue in this current state of the industry, where the jobs are in short supply and the competition fierce.
“Our union has always worked hard to ensure that as many projects as possible – both public and private – go to local unionized contractors,” says Ronald Taketa, financial secretary/business representative for the Hawaii Carpenters Union, Local 745. “The perception is that there is more focus on this issue now, but it’s probably because the recession has caused such a big drop-off in work that every project receives more attention from those who depend on our industry.”
“In tough economic times, we see a trend of mainland contractors coming to Hawaii to compete for jobs against our local contractors. Most of them don’t use local hands,” comments Damien Kim, business manager and financial secretary for the Inter-national Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 1186. “What people don’t realize is that the profits (these mainland contractors make) go back to the mainland and don’t recirculate back into our local economy.”
Kim continues, “What’s hard is we can’t just walk onto certain projects and investigate on our own. That’s where we need the state Department of Commerce and Consumers Affairs (DCCA) and RICO (DCCA’s regulatory are) to come out and help us, primarily with more enforcement.”
Staying Competitive
“One of the most important things our union has done to help our contractors and our members secure more work in this downturn was to defer all wage increases for two years,” says Taketa. “This wage freeze is critical to keeping our contractors competitive in a shrinking market.”
The IBEW also recently ratified its contract in July, extending the expiration date from August 2010 to August 2011.
The unions believe another key to staying competitive is by providing highly skilled craftspeople, and despite the bleak economy, several have expanded and improved their training programs.
For example, Taketa says, “We’ve strengthened our training program so our contractors are provided with highly skilled and productive workers, now and in the future. We recently opened our new, state-of-the-art training center in Kapolei, which will benefit generations of carpenters in the years ahead.”
And in May, IBEW unveiled its new Green Jobs Curriculum, which focuses on the latest energy-efficient technologies, including photovoltaic systems and wind turbines.
Finally, the Plumbers and Fitters United Association, Local 675, recently opened its new Iwilei Training Center. Classes now will be available at three training venues: Iwilei, the union’s Pearl City Training Center and Honolulu Community College.
In addition to contracts and training, Taketa adds, “Although our union also supports CIP projects, particularly those that are ‘shovel ready’ in the short term, much of our effort is directed at laying the foundation for future projects such as rail transit, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project and many private development projects around the state so we will be in the position to win as much work as possible when the economy begins to improve.”
