The Paychecks of Hawaii Public Union Leaders
It’s a challenging time to be running a public union.
State and local governments across the country are looking at ways to cut spending by reducing public worker benefits. Hawaii is no exception.
Five of Hawaii’s public unions are back at the negotiating table because their contracts expire this summer — and the governor and Honolulu’s mayor have made clear they expect concessions.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie says he wants a 5 percent reduction in public employee labor costs. Yet, the governor’s pick for chief negotiator was none other than the vice president from one of the state’s most powerful unions. Neil Dietz was the vice-president of the Hawaii State AFL-CIO. He has left his job at the Seafarers International Union where he managed daily operations of the largest maritime union in the state.
Hawaii’s Office of Collective Bargaining also is under new control with the recent appointment of a new director of , Sunshine Topping, who will have a seat at the bargaining table.
Of note will be whether the governor and mayor make good on their campaign promises to end furloughs that were started under previous administrations. Also on the table will be pay and benefits for city and state workers covered by five unions: the Hawaii Government Employees Association, United Public Workers union, Hawaii State Teachers Association, State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers and Hawaii Fire Fighters Association. Some of these unions initially endorsed Abercrombie and Carlisle’s losing opponents, Mufi Hannemann and Kirk Caldwell.
These union leaders are negotiating the salaries and benefits of their memberships. So Civil Beat decided to look at the pay and benefits they themselves earn.
We’ve reported that among state workers, some earned so little that they were eligible for food stamps. Data provided to Civil Beat last year shows that the lowest paid employee in the state is almost certainly an office assistant at the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, whose pay ranges from $21,948 to $33,756. A single person earning a salary at the lowest end of the range would be eligible for federal nutrition assistance of up to $314 a month.
By contrast, four of the five unions gave their leadership compensation packages worth more than $150,000 last year.
We looked at the executives of six public unions, which together represent nearly 80,000 members statewide:
- (Contract ends June 2011.)
- (Contract ends June 2011.)
- (Contract ends June 2011.)
- (Contract ends June 2015, but revisiting the terms earlier could be an option.)
- (Contract ends June 2011.)
- (Contract ends June 2011.)
A high percentage of Hawaii’s work force is unionized, both in the public and private sector. Nationally, the union membership rate — the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union — was 12.3 percent. Hawaii — with a total of 123,000 union members — was one of four states last year with union membership rates over 20 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The following compensation information is based on 2009 financial statements filed with the and tax filings with the .
| Union and executive | Membership | 2009 base salary | Other compensation | Total pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii Government Employees Association Randy Perreira, executive director |
43,000 | $163,149 | $32,791 | $195,940 |
| United Public Workers Dayton Nakanelua, state director |
14,065 | $147,084 | $33,160 | $180,244 |
| Hawaii State Teachers Association Roger Takabayashi, president |
12,656 | $134,275 | $23,193 | $157,468 |
| Hawaii State Teachers Association Dwight Takeno, interim executive director |
12,656 | $109,017 | $70,712 | $179,7281 |
| University of Hawaii Professional Assembly J.N. Musto, executive director |
3,850 | $174,748 | $10,002 | $184,750 |
| State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers Russell Akana, executive director |
2,917 | $64,814 | $15,397 | $80,211 |
| Hawaii Fire Fighters Association Robert Lee, president |
2,000 | $13,800 | n/a | $13,8002 |
Here’s a look at the financial standing of these unions:
| Union name | 2009 revenue from membership dues |
Total revenue | Expenses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii Government Employees Association | $16.18 million | $16.29 million | $22.06 million |
| United Public Workers | $9.19 million | $10.13 million | $8.89 million |
| Hawaii State Teachers Association | $6.88 million | $7.68 million | $7.7 million |
| University of Hawaii Professional Assembly | $3.17 million | $3.34 million | $2.7 million |
| State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers | $2.16 million | $2.16 million | $1.69 million |
| Hawaii Fire Fighters Association | $1.07 million | $1.15 million | $1 million |
These unions represent state and county employees covered by 13 collective bargaining units:
- Unit 1: Non-supervisory employees in blue collar positions
- Unit 2: Supervisory employees in blue collar positions
- Unit 3: Non-supervisory employees in white collar positions
- Unit 4: Supervisory employees in white collar positions
- Unit 5: Teachers
- Unit 6: Educational officers
- Unit 7: University of Hawaii and community college faculty
- Unit 8: Administrative, professional and technical employees of the University of Hawaii
- Unit 9: Registered professional nurses
- Unit 10: Institutional, health and correctional workers
- Unit 11: Firefighters
- Unit 12: Police
- Unit 13: Professional and scientific employees
HGEA, the state’s largest union with 43,000 members, exclusively represents employees in bargaining units 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 13.
