HSTA’s flex shows muscle of unions in isle politics

If you don’t ask, you never find out who are your friends.

In order to find out whom to endorse, unions and other groups send out questionnaires, asking candidates to put on the record their views about their union and its issues.

Boiled down to its essence, the union wants to know, "Will you do what we ask, if we endorse you?"

This year, the Hawaii State Teachers Association put a fairly fine point on that question by asking candidates to turn in their surveys by last Friday.

If lawmakers felt that the HSTA was putting pressure on them while they were still in session and deciding on union issues, then so be it.

In a Democratic, pro-labor state such as Hawaii, union endorsements are always welcome, but the HSTA’s nod appears to be big win.

First, the union has money and it spends it on the politicians it likes.

According to National Institute on Money in State Politics, between 2004 and this year, the HSTA and its political action committees have contributed $320,291. The more than 300 donations are listed on the Money in State Politics web site at http://goo.gl/5dY3L.

In just the last election cycle, 2010, the HSTA plopped down $110,570. That kind of money shows more than a passing interest in our democratic process.

Money and the HSTA is only part of the union’s clout; it is also able to insert teachers into campaigns.

"The HSTA is still a big element with the Legislature; it is very influential because they endorse and offer assistance. They are very important in an election," says Rep. Barbara Marumoto (R-Kalani Valley-Diamond Head).

This year, the question of the union’s clout is a valid one. HSTA leadership failed to gets its members to approve the new contract between teachers and the state. This came after the union leadership approved the contract and urged members to ratify it.

New talks are continuing between HSTA and the state.

Then the union launched a power lobbying campaign at the Legislature to kill bills that would have started a "performance management system" leading to teacher evaluations. The HSTA said no, you must bargain this; it is not a management prerogative. Then the union called up its social media forces, bombarding the Legislature with emails, Facebook postings and blogs attacking lawmakers.

Sen. Jill Tokuda, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee called it "fear and rhetoric" that killed the bill. Within days the state Board of Education passed its own version of an evaluation program, which is still being evaluated by the union, according to Wil Okabe, HSTA president.

A former legislator who also has been in involved in public education said Okabe has managed to turn himself into something of a "labor hero," by demonizing the Legislature’s attempts at education reform and then defeating them.

"He is able to frame the bills as some sort of Frankenstein monsters, and so when they die, it is a great victory," said the former lawmaker, who asked not to be identified.

The union’s real power, however, will be in acting as a legislative gate-keeper, letting in union-approved politicians and keeping out those hostile to the union.

Sometimes even those picks don’t go as planned.

Okabe notes that it was partially because of the HSTA that Neil Abercrombie is today governor.

"The HSTA was the biggest union to support the governor and we were instrumental in getting him elected," Okabe said in an interview.

Since that election, things have turned more than a tad sour. The union and the state administration and the Abercrombie-appointed Board of Education continue to bargain over a new contract, with little signs of progress.

Perhaps the best description of the HSTA’s power is Tokuda’s answer to that question.

"They are only as powerful as we let them be," Tokuda said.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.