Likely job losses another reason to nix NextEra deal

Hawaii urgently needs more good jobs to enable our young people to work and raise families here.

Perhaps the single biggest threat to jobs in Hawaii is the proposed takeover of Hawaiian Electric Industries by Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc., which could result in hundreds of employees losing their jobs out of the more than 2,000 the company currently employs.

Recent utility mergers nationwide have involved job cuts as high as 29 percent, particularly in fields like legal, finance and IT.

These are jobs that can pay enough for Hawaii families to buy a home, put the kids through school, save for retirement and have a good quality of life.Loss of jobs like these would be devastating to our economic future.

It’s no secret that Hawaii is a tough place for young people. Study after study ranks our cost of living as the highest in the nation.

For instance, it takes a higher salary to “live comfortably” in Hawaii than anywhere else in the country. And it takes 28 years to save for an average down payment with an average wage here, eight years longer than second-place San Francisco. We have the highest percentage of both parents working in the country, and the highest percentage of people working two or more jobs in the country. Nowhere more desperately needs a critical mass of well-paid, professional jobs than Hawaii.

But let’s face it: NextEra would eliminate many jobs in Hawaii. NextEra has promised no involuntary layoffs over the next two years and claims that it has no “current” plans for layoffs after that. But that doesn’t prevent many other tactics to cut HEI’s workforce: early retirement packages, hiring freezes, refusing to fill vacancies, not hiring replacements for normal attrition, or even job relocations to Florida that local families could not realistically accept.

Not replacing retiremees alone could result in hundreds of lost jobs in just a few short years.

If NextEra were to simply not replace employees who retire in the two-year period between an approved takeover (2016-18), and every eligible employee did, in fact, retire, 37.4 percent of the HECO bargaining unit jobs would disappear.

By 2020, 44.8 percent of HEI’s bargaining unit employees will be eligible for retirement.

NextEra’s Aug. 31 filing before the Public Utilities Commission was its opportunity to address these concerns. But it has not changed its position at all. NextEra still refuses to commit to no layoffs for three years. NextEra refuses to comment on its plans after the collective bargaining agreement with IBEW Local 1260 expires in 2018. Indeed, IBEW has now announced its opposition to the takeover.

Of significant concern, NextEra has still not made any commitments to continue doing business with local, Hawaii-based companies and has not estimated the impacts of reducing these business relationships.

The economic impact of job cuts at HEI would not be limited to one job and one family. Experts estimate that one job loss could lead to as many as 3.21 job losses throughout the economy as the reduction in economic activity ripples through the state.

It’s already hard enough for our young people to make it in Hawaii. The proposed NextEra takeover raises a myriad of concerns for Hawaii residents, each deserving its own special feature — loss of local control, an antiquated business model, insufficient commitment to our 100 percent renewable energy target, use of fossil fuels, and more. Let’s make sure we don’t forget that a NextEra takeover would also compound our economic problems by eliminating hundreds of good jobs that would prevent hundreds of smart, talented young people from being able to work and live in Hawaii.

Stanley Chang is an attorney and former member of the Honolulu City Council.