Hawaiʻi lawmakers last week advanced a bundle of bills earmarking hundreds of millions of dollars over the next two years for raises for unionized state employees. Contracts also call for nearly $1 billion for the following two years.

But some public workers are disappointed or angry at the outcome of this year’s bargaining.

If the mood is a bit sour among the union rank and file, that is partly because of timing. Bargaining wrapped up shortly after the Hawaiʻi Commission on Salaries awarded total raises ranging from 35% to 48% over six years to top state leaders, including the governor and his department heads.

By comparison, unionized state workers received raises of 4% or less per year for the next four years. Union leaders say the state urgently needs to boost public workers’ pay to help recruit people to fill vacant state jobs, but the new contracts won’t do that.

“The thing for recruitment and retention is a decent wage and some kind of recognition, that we appreciate you for staying on,” said Paul Kyles, a longtime corrections sergeant and member of the United Public Workers union bargaining committee. “They didn’t want to address the longevity, and that’s what the whole point was — recruitment and retention.”

The timing of the generous raises for top state managers also angered members, he said.

“How are you guys going to take that kind of money and throw us pennies?” he said.

Still, the cost of the raises to the state over the next four years is daunting.

Hefty New Costs

A House-Senate conference committee last week approved 10 appropriations bills totaling more than $475 million to cover raises and benefits awarded to members of the UPW, Hawaiʻi Government Employees Association and other public worker unions over the next two years.

The new four-year contracts for HGEA, UPW and University of Hawaiʻi and community college faculty will cost another $968 million in extra salaries and benefits in the following two years, according to a series of messages Gov. Josh Green submitted to the Legislature requesting funding.

The appropriations approved by lawmakers last week only fund raises for state workers, but the new HGEA and UPW contracts also cover thousands of city and county employees across the state. The counties will have to finance the raises for their employees separately in the months ahead.

Lawmakers also gave preliminary approval to a separate bill to provide almost $244 million in pandemic hazard pay for state workers in the state Department of Education, the University of Hawaiʻi, the state correctional system, state law enforcement agencies and other state departments.

That new hazard pay money would be in addition to $450 million lawmakers approved last year for hazard pay for HGEA members and some non-union state employees.

HGEA is the largest union in the state with nearly 37,000 members. UPW has about 13,000 members.

Randy Perreira, executive director of HGEA, said state workers are still “vastly underpaid,” and the state and counties have struggled to fill vacant government jobs in the wake of the pandemic. The remaining state employees may have to put in overtime and take on additional responsibilities to fill the gaps.

HGEA members are worried about keeping pace with inflation, the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs and how they might affect Hawaiʻi’s escalating cost of living, Perreira said.

“Some people at least are seeing this as some certainty for the next four years, that they will have a contract in place and irrespective of what happens outside of just open catastrophe, that we’ll at least be secure with our agreement with the state and counties,” he said.

The new four-year contracts for both UPW and HGEA feature raises of 3.5% the first year, 3.75% the second year, and 4% in each of the final two years, according to union officials.

The much larger raises awarded to top managers by the salary commission over the next six years were “a source of some irritation,” Perreira said. “Very clearly, there is frustration.”

Alex Kuklenko, a UPW member with the Hawaiʻi County Parks Department in Kona, said he is so unhappy with the contract he is seriously considering quitting the union. He said union leaders should have held out for bigger raises, and “it seems like the union doesn’t want to fight for us.”

“Because inflation, all the prices went up already,” said Kuklento, 34. “The park caretakers can go work at Walmart for $24 an hour and just restock shelves.”

Kuklenko, 34, said his wife is a unionized hotel worker, and she received a sizable raise with another 5% each year.

“I complained about it, but nobody listens,” he said of the new contract.

UPW State Director Kalani Werner did not respond to requests for an interview, but said in a written statement last week that UPW members raised concerns throughout the negotiations about the increasing cost of living and growing pressures on public sector workers.

“Our members work hard and they deserve better than the bare minimum,” Werner said in the statement. “We secured important protections, but the fight for dignity, fairness, and respect is far from over. This contract is a floor, not a ceiling, and we will continue to organize, advocate, and hold decision makers accountable.”

Despite the unhappiness in some quarters, union leaders said both UPW and HGEA members approved the contracts by wide margins during ratification voting over the past week.