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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa speaks during a rally for her 2014 campaign on Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at the Bishop Museum in Kalihi.
U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa today picked up the endorsements of the United Public Workers Union and five other public and private-sector labor unions.
The 13,000-member UPW was the largest of the endorsements.
Others included the Hawaii Longshore Division statewide, Hawaii Laborers Union Local 368, Hawaii Masons Union Locals 1 and 630, the Hawaii Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 293, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 121.
“Throughout her career as an attorney, state Senate president and member of Congress, Colleen has stood with organized labor and gone to great lengths to fight for our members and their families,” Dayton M. Nakanelua, UPW’s state director, said in a news release. “We need a proven, experienced leader serving Hawaii in the U.S. Senate and Colleen has demonstrated, time and again, that she is that individual.”
Hanabusa is challenging U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz in the 2014 Democratic primary to fill the remaining two years in the term left by U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, who died in December.
Schatz has picked up the endorsement of the 42,000-member Hawaii Government Employees Association, the state’s largest public-sector labor union. Both HGEA and UPW are units within the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
