2 councilmen make wrong call on TV ads

Two City Council members who are running for Congress come off more like pitchmen than community leaders in TV ads that put them in the middle of a local labor dispute.

Stanley Chang and Joey Manahan may have considered the spots for Unite Here Local 5 a free opportunity to broadcast their pro-labor bona fides and increase their name recognition, but the results are unseemly, being tailored so narrowly for a single special interest.

Elected officials and candidates running for office are expected to hold opinions, of course, and to air them openly. But the commercials in which Chang and Manahan criticize Kaiser Permanente for seeking to curtail retirement benefits cast the two as mere spokesmen. Their more appropriate roles as representatives from whom all constituents can get a fair hearing are diminished.

The ads conform with campaign laws and neither councilman was paid for his participation. The issue isn’t legality, but perception and the perception here is that Chang and Manahan have undermined their own credibility as objective City Council members and as candidates for higher office. Both are running in the 1st Congressional District’s crowded Democratic primary; the ads identify them only as Ho-nolulu councilmembers.

Unite Here Local 5 created the series of 15-second ads to put pressure on Kaiser, which employs about 1,900 of its members. Local 5 has been trying to negotiate a new contract since the last one expired in August 2012. In one spot, Chang says Kaiser wants to end guaranteed pensions for local workers, and asserts, "Kaiser shouldn’t hurt our people as they get older." He appeals to Kaiser to "do the right thing." In another, Manahan says "getting old shouldn’t hurt. Ending guaranteed pensions hurts our people as we get older. I say No’ to ending guaranteed pensions."

A Kaiser spokeswoman insists that the commercials are misleading. The state’s largest health-maintenance organization proposed changing retirement benefits for only new hires. Kaiser gave Local 5 a "last, best and final offer" in January that the union did not present to its membership for a vote, said spokeswoman Laura Lott.

"There are no changes to any current employees’ pension benefits within this new offer," she said.

Changes in retirement benefits are a major issue for unionized workers across the country in all sorts of industries. Employees who accepted smaller pay raises over the years, for example, in exchange for robust, certain pensions at retirement are understandably loath to give up that benefit in favor of a 401(k) that depends more on their own contributions and fluctuates with the stock market.

Chang and Manahan may have strong convictions on this subject, but expressing them this way cheapens the message. Imagine the reaction if a generally pro-development politician or candidate appeared in an ad for a specific Kakaako developer.

Politicians in a constant quest for name recognition sometimes make the wrong call, as Chang and Manahan have done here. Ultimately, Local 5 has done these two no favors. No serious candidate wants to be seen as a shill.