HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0582.017 1996-1998
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Working Together LOCAL 152, APL-CIO ~
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for Hawaii 1~(~~~%!~ 'w 9
Hawaii Government Employees Associatipn
395 Manono Street, Hilo, Hawaii 96726, Phone BOS) 935-6841. FAX (808) 961-2437
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December 17, 1 . ,
Testimony of Lillie Tsuchiya President Hawaii Chanter Retirees Unit,
HGEA/AFSCME in supuort of Resolution 185-97 relating to fundin¢ of
negotiated cost items for HGEA Bareaining Units 03, 04, 63 and 84.
Good morning, my name is Lillie Tsuchiya, Hawaii Chapter President of
HGEA/AFSCME's approximately 1,160 member Retirees Unit. Thank you for this
opportunity to speak to you on funding of the negotiated cost items for Bargaining
Units 03, 04, 63 and 84.
Our statewide HGEA/AFSCME Retirees Unit Board of Directors went on record on
November 10, 1997 to unanimously support the funding for the cost items. Our
Retirees Unit is made up of 8,671 members.
As long time public employees in our State and HGEA members, we can readily
remember the past when we lived in a situation wherein we had no or little
participation in the determining of the salary and benefits we received. Collective
bargaining in the public sector in Hawaii brought about major changes and afforded
us an opportunity to sit across the table and in good faith work with the public
employers to realize our efforts to sustain a decent standard of living.
We believed in 1970 and continue to believe today, in the statements contained in
Section 89-1, Chapter 89, Hawaii Revised Statutes. Chapter 89 is commonly
known as our Public Sector Collective Bargaining Law in Hawaii. Section 89-1
states in part, The legislature finds that joint decisionmaking is the modern way of
administering government. Where public employees have been granted the right to
share in the decisionmaking process affecting wages and working conditions, they
have become more responsive and better able to exchange ideas and information on
operations with their administrators. Accordingly, government is made more
effective. The legislature further finds that the enactment of positive legislation
establishing guidelines for public employment relations is the best way to harness
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and duect the energies of public employees eager to have a voice in determining
their conditions of work, to provide a rational method for dealing with disputes and
work stoppages, and to maintain a favorable political and social environment."
Our union organization, HGEA, provided us the vehicle to collectively express our
heartfelt needs in negotiations. For that we are thankful and proud to have been a
part of the HGEA and this collective bargaining process.
The struggle to sustain a decent livelihood continues to this day whether a person is
in a union or not, whether collective bargaining is present or not. We, as retirees,
live on a fixed income. We are keenly aware that younger families -our sons and
daughters and grandchildren -are trying their best to keep up with the daily
economic demands of living. We empathize with them for working hard and
diligently to provide for their children. They minor what we did in our earlier life.
We support this negotiated pay increase. It is not beyond the means of government
to grant. It will go to people who work hard, who are doing their best to take care
of their children, and who are contributing~members of this County.
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LILLIE TSUCHIYA
Hawaii Chapter President
HGEA/AFSCME Retirees Unit
L'PSCCHIY WPD
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