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Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s unapologetic trim-the-fat approach helped win him the Sept. 18 election. He told voters improving government would take “blood, sweat and tears, yours and mine.”

But union workers may not have to give up as much as the mayor said he would like them to.

The mayor repeatedly emphasized his desire to put an end furloughs that he said during the campaign unnecessarily protect a “selfish” work force from layoffs. He described government workers as coddled with generous vacation time, holidays and sick days.

But now Carlisle is running into the reality that he doesn’t control negotiations with unions. The mayor gets a seat at the table, but his influence isn’t substantial. Hawaii’s political make-up — a Democratic governor, two Democratic mayors, one Republican Mayor and Carlise — won’t help him either.

The four major unions representing city workers have to negotiate new contracts before the new fiscal year in July, and all four of them endorsed Carlisle’s failed opponent, Kirk Caldwell: the Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA), the United Public Workers (UPW), the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO) and the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association (HFFA).

stipulates that, when negotiating contracts for police officers and fire fighters: “The governor shall have four votes and the mayors shall each have one vote.” In the other contracts, the governor has six votes, the mayors still have one each and two other votes go to the chief justice and someone from the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. board.

That means Gov. Neil Abercrombie only needs to convince one mayor to side with him in order to strike a deal. Chances are, it won’t be Carlisle. Their offices may be across the street from one another, and they share about 1 million constituents, but Honolulu’s mayor and Hawaii’s governor don’t exactly share the same political values. Abercrombie is a longtime Democrat and while the office of the Honolulu mayor is officially nonpartisan, Carlisle clearly leans right.

In early January, Carlisle explicitly told an audience at the Pacific Club that he did not intend to cooperate with Abercrombie.

Two of the state’s four mayors are decided Democrats. Those men, Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho and Big Island Mayor Bill Kenoi, could stick together.

It follows then that Republican Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa and Carlisle could gravitate toward one another. But Abercrombie only needs one mayor to agree with him to finalize agreements.

Carlisle calls police and fire the “sacred cows” of union negotiations. The mayor has promised to take them on, and fight against any efforts to increase pay. This comes after the police union secured a 33 percent raise and unionized firefighters got a 20 percent bump in pay in their last four-year contracts.

But that could be difficult, given the security demands of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.

Carlisle criticized the growth of government under the previous administration, which grew the city work force 5 percent and spiked operating costs 39 percent over a six-year period.

The negotiations could have serious ramifications for the city. Honolulu’s biggest cost is compensation to city workers. The city already faces a spending gap somewhere in the tens of millions of dollars. Carlisle said his initial estimate of a $100 million deficit was too high, but will not offer an updated figure.

If Carlisle is forced to pay union workers more than he wants, it could throw an already wobbly budgetary balancing act off-kilter.

A former union organizer, Abercrombie has a 40-year record of supporting labor interest. Then again, Abercrombie could surprise people. The governor is under enormous pressure to dig the state out of a projected $800 million shortfall over the next two years. Already, he startled some voters with his plan to raise taxes and cut some services. But he’s given up at least one bargaining chip: Abercrombie already promised public workers he’d make their health care less expensive.

The clock is ticking on negotiations for all four major unions representing city workers. As of Jan. 31, both SHOPO and HGEA had reached an impasse — in the latter case, only because the union hasn’t even had the opportunity to sit down with the administration yet, a spokesperson for HGEA said. Repeated calls to HFFA and UPW for comment weren’t returned.

mandate that any union that hasn’t reached an agreement with the government by Feb. 21 must enter into arbitration.

An arbitration panel would then attempt to mediate a resolution, but if that does not occur ultimately it issues a binding decision.

Even if Carlisle has nothing to show for union negotiations, though, it may not be a total loss. The mayor is up for re-election in 2012, and will have to start the fight to keep his job in a matter of months. Not getting what he wants could present an opportunity for Carlisle to again speak strongly against what he sees as a waste of money. This attitude worked for him the first time around.

The ability to point a finger at someone else during a time of enormous financial hardship may also serve to deflect anger about any city services Carlisle may have to cut as a result.

It may turn out that circumstances beyond Carlisle’s control will help him stay in office.