STATE AND UPW REACH TENTATIVE AGREEMENT

For Immediate Release:  April 23, 2007

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle announced today that the State and the counties have reached a tentative agreement with the United Public Workers (UPW) union in negotiations involving the following bargaining units:

Bargaining Unit 1 Blue Collar Non-Supervisory Employees, which has approximately 9,000 employees.  The State of Hawai‘i, the Judiciary, the Hawai‘i Health Systems Corporation, the City and County of Honolulu, and the Counties of Hawai‘i, Maui and Kaua‘i employ these UPW members. 

Bargaining Unit 10 Institutional, Health and Correctional Workers, which has approximately 2,800 employees.  The State of Hawai‘i, the Judiciary, the Hawai‘i, Health Systems Corporation and the City and County of Honolulu employ members of this bargaining unit.

The members of the two bargaining units are currently in various stages of the ratification process and accordingly, information on specific negotiated issues will remain confidential until after the ratifications are completed.  If ratified by the membership, the contract would take effect on July 1, 2007, and run through June 30, 2009.

“As the two units move forward on the ratification process, I believe the members will see that this is a fair settlement that recognizes the important contributions of UPW members,” said Governor Lingle, who expressed her appreciation to the representatives of both sides of the bargaining table in reaching these agreements.  “These public servants, which include custodians, sanitation workers, prison guards, public hospital workers, food service employees and other employees for the State and counties provide valuable services to our community.”

The lone remaining public sector negotiation involves the State of Hawai‘i Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO), which represents police officers in the four county jurisdictions.  It is anticipated that the parties will enter the arbitration phase of bargaining sometime in May.  As there are no State employees in this bargaining unit, the State Legislature is not involved in the funding process.

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For more information, contact:

Marie Laderta
Chief Negotiator and
Director, Dept. of Human Resources Development
Phone: 587-1100

Lenny Klompus
Senior Advisor – Communications
Phone:  586-7708

Russell Pang
Chief of Media Relations
Phone: 586-0043

Georgina Kawamura
Director, Budget and Finance
Phone: 586-1518