Unions in Hawaii (Honolulu: real estate, insurance, hotel)
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When a friend of mine applied for a job in Hawaii, I started doing some research on living conditions on the islands in relation to wage rates, and to my utter surprise, I found that the pay rates were actually lower than on the mainland, despite the higher cost of living. Although my friend is absolutely desperate to land a job, he'll probably have to turn this one down if he gets an offer, as he'll not be able to support himself there on the salary that's being offered.
This leads to some questions about how things work in Hawaii - namely, why are wages so low there compared to the cost of living? And are unions present, and if so, why aren't organizing massive strikes to get wage levels up to where they should be to match the mainland standard of living? I just think if the service workers on the islands banded together and formed a powerful union, they could hold massive strikes in the peak tourist season in order to win huge pay rises - it's not like hotel jobs could ever be outsourced...LOL. And since Hawaii has a "closed" economy, I don't think it'd be too difficult for people in other sectors to also form unions and increase their standard of living, much like workers did in the industrial states in the 1st half of the 20th century. Again, employers would have no choice to pay whatever the strikers demand, as where would they go? Off to the mainland? I don't think so...LOL.
But in all seriousness, why don't the good people of Hawaii take things in their hands and form powerful unions that would dramatically increase their standard of living? There's absolutely no reason for costs to be so high and wages so low, except for employer greed, plain and simple.
Another fantasy I have about Hawaii as well, is that all the lower class people just leave the islands, leaving the rich people to fend for themselves - wouldn't that be something, huh? Imagine being a millionaire and living in Hawaii, but not being able to get a haircut or buy something at the store, because all the "proles" have left...LOL.
Don't get me wrong, I think Hawaii is an amazing place, and I'm proud to have this state as part of our Union. I just think that the citizens of this beautiful state could take quite easily matters in their own hands and make Hawaii what it's always meant to be, a true paradise on Earth.
Employer greed? How about just simple supply & demand?
As long as people flock to 'paradise', employers will not face a labor shortage that would lead to workers getting a larger percentage cut of the pie. (In many cases, I don't think that pie is all that big anyway.) This forum is full of posts from (clueless?) people looking to leave bad weather (and their problems?) behind and move to 'paradise'.
Moreover, as long as wealthy non-residents from, say, California or Japan can buy Hawaii real estate, housing prices will remain high relatively speaking. This is true of every resort/vacation destination with which I am familiar.
Heck, all of this applies to the 'island' of Manhattan, or the greater SF area, or Chicago: expensive real estate, low wages for non-professionals, mediocre wages for most mid-tier professionals, etc. Hawaii, however, is at the disadvantage of facing higher costs to transport in goods relative to NY, SF, or Chicago which makes the wage vs. cost-of-living situation worse.
If your friend is already living in Hawaii and he is absolutely desperate to find a job, when someone offers him a job which will pay for 80% of his living situation, then he will take that job and then go find a second job to fill in what the first one doesn't cover. The other options are to go back to where ever he came from or to drastically change his living situation so the first job will cover it.
There are a whole plethora of reasons why Hawaii is the way it is, but whyever and whatever it is, it ain't the mainland. Trying to live like they are on the mainland is what causes a lot of trouble for folks living here. Live local and it works, live mainland and your life will suck unless it has huge amounts of money to make it work. To live local, though, you need family and community.
If your friend is already living in Hawaii and he is absolutely desperate to find a job, when someone offers him a job which will pay for 80% of his living situation, then he will take that job and then go find a second job to fill in what the first one doesn't cover. The other options are to go back to where ever he came from or to drastically change his living situation so the first job will cover it.
There are a whole plethora of reasons why Hawaii is the way it is, but whyever and whatever it is, it ain't the mainland. Trying to live like they are on the mainland is what causes a lot of trouble for folks living here. Live local and it works, live mainland and your life will suck unless it has huge amounts of money to make it work. To live local, though, you need family and community.
Thank goodness my friend is still here in Georgia (he was a former co-worker of mine back in the day). He was told that it wouldn't be too competitive and would have a decent chance of getting a job (as an urban planner) in Kauai, but even so, at the salary they're offering, not to mention the expense of moving over there (!), and the very high cost of housing, etc, I seriously doubt he'd take it. If he got an offer and asked me if he should take it, I'd tell him to take a pass on it, based on my research here on C-D.
I agree with the idea of trying to force the "mainland" way of life in Hawaii probably isn't the way to go, but I honestly thought that Hawaii was a liberal, labor-friendly state that at least tried to provide a decent standard of living for its citizens.
In any case, learning about Hawaii makes me glad I live in a place where houses are cheap (and getting cheaper...lol), and milk can be had for $2.59 a gallon (gotta have my milk!), and most importantly, people can generally get by on one full-time job, as it should be.
When a friend of mine applied for a job in Hawaii, I started doing some research on living conditions on the islands in relation to wage rates, and to my utter surprise, I found that the pay rates were actually lower than on the mainland, despite the higher cost of living. Although my friend is absolutely desperate to land a job, he'll probably have to turn this one down if he gets an offer, as he'll not be able to support himself there on the salary that's being offered.
This leads to some questions about how things work in Hawaii - namely, why are wages so low there compared to the cost of living? And are unions present, and if so, why aren't organizing massive strikes to get wage levels up to where they should be to match the mainland standard of living? I just think if the service workers on the islands banded together and formed a powerful union, they could hold massive strikes in the peak tourist season in order to win huge pay rises - it's not like hotel jobs could ever be outsourced...LOL. And since Hawaii has a "closed" economy, I don't think it'd be too difficult for people in other sectors to also form unions and increase their standard of living, much like workers did in the industrial states in the 1st half of the 20th century. Again, employers would have no choice to pay whatever the strikers demand, as where would they go? Off to the mainland? I don't think so...LOL.
But in all seriousness, why don't the good people of Hawaii take things in their hands and form powerful unions that would dramatically increase their standard of living? There's absolutely no reason for costs to be so high and wages so low, except for employer greed, plain and simple.
Another fantasy I have about Hawaii as well, is that all the lower class people just leave the islands, leaving the rich people to fend for themselves - wouldn't that be something, huh? Imagine being a millionaire and living in Hawaii, but not being able to get a haircut or buy something at the store, because all the "proles" have left...LOL.
Don't get me wrong, I think Hawaii is an amazing place, and I'm proud to have this state as part of our Union. I just think that the citizens of this beautiful state could take quite easily matters in their own hands and make Hawaii what it's always meant to be, a true paradise on Earth.
Comments and thoughts are highly welcomed.
Is this post a joke?
You obviously don't realize that Hawaii is known as having some of the strongest unions in the country and that the inflated wages they have been able to extract, especially in the government sector, is one of the main causes of the high prices, high taxes and corruption in the state government, which is well over 90% controlled by the Democratic Party in both state legislative branches.
Do you know why Honolulu hotel prices are so high? The hotel workers are union employees... Cause and effect. If you raise expenses, you have to have higher costs to make up for the extra expense.
Do you know why Honolulu hotel prices are so high? The hotel workers are union employees... Cause and effect. If you raise expenses, you have to have higher costs to make up for the extra expense.
Not! Hotel workers as a whole are paid crappy wages in Hawaii. Do you have any idea what many of them are paid? I do. My SIL has been a housekeeper in Waikiki for more than 25 years. She has a position where she not only cleans all day but oversees the work of others. Guess what she makes? Less than 30K a year. All that hard work for slave wages.
The slaves are expected to give up pay and bennies when times are rough. You can be rest assured that upper management and CEOs will never cut their pay and bennies during rough times. After all, they provide jobs...albeit jobs that don't pay a living wage. Imagine where we, the workers, would be if we didn't have collective bargaining. Perhaps,my SIL would be doing the same amount of work for say 20K a year. Keep banging on the unions why don't you.
You obviously don't realize that Hawaii is known as having some of the strongest unions in the country and that the inflated wages they have been able to extract, especially in the government sector, is one of the main causes of the high prices, high taxes and corruption in the state government, which is well over 90% controlled by the Democratic Party in both state legislative branches.
Do you know why Honolulu hotel prices are so high? The hotel workers are union employees... Cause and effect. If you raise expenses, you have to have higher costs to make up for the extra expense.
Well, that WAS what I was asking about, as I am rather ignorant of what goes in a state that's about 5000 miles from where I live...LOL.
If the unions are so strong in Hawaii, then the service employees should be doing alright, IMO. But I still don't understand why the job my friend was applying for pays about $10k less than a comparable job in the SE US (a place not particularly known for high living expenses) - perhaps that's because that would be a non-union job, who knows. The bottom line, he can't afford to move out there and live (and make return trips to the mainland from time to time) on what they're offering. Perhaps they need to lower the job requirements so a local can have that job...lol.
But if Hawaii was union-free, and wages were even lower than they are now, I suspect there would be a mass exodus to the mainland, Key West-style, leaving the resorts high and dry for the lack of workers. At least in Key West, they do things like bus workers in from the mainland - you sure can't do that in Hawaii...LOL. Then the resorts would close, the tourists would have no place to stay, etc, etc. Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing after all...LOL.
The idea of living in a state that's 90% Democratic does sound intriguing, that blows away the state of New York, even. (Where I wish to move to sometime, out of the dreadfully conservative South.)
Not! Hotel workers as a whole are paid crappy wages in Hawaii. Do you have any idea what many of them are paid? I do. My SIL has been a housekeeper in Waikiki for more than 25 years. She has a position where she not only cleans all day but oversees the work of others. Guess what she makes? Less than 30K a year. All that hard work for slave wages.
The slaves are expected to give up pay and bennies when times are rough. You can be rest assured that upper management and CEOs will never cut their pay and bennies during rough times. After all, they provide jobs...albeit jobs that don't pay a living wage. Imagine where we, the workers, would be if we didn't have collective bargaining. Perhaps,my SIL would be doing the same amount of work for say 20K a year. Keep banging on the unions why don't you.
Thank you!
Nice to have someone on my side for once - instant rep point for you.
Not! Hotel workers as a whole are paid crappy wages in Hawaii. Do you have any idea what many of them are paid? I do. My SIL has been a housekeeper in Waikiki for more than 25 years. She has a position where she not only cleans all day but oversees the work of others. Guess what she makes? Less than 30K a year. All that hard work for slave wages....
Why has your SIL not moved on to a better job after all these years? Has someone forced her to not seek a better job? At approx $15 an hour, that isn't "slave wages". Does she report the tips she receives....
Hawaii I think is about 25% union of all labor.
State and County is about 42% union
if the majority are non union in private business and the majority is non-union in governement jobs, how come the union is blamed for all the ills?
Can someone tell me why the non-union employees are not also being blamed for contributing to the money mess?
I remember years ago when our company was buying a unionized carrier in the US. The company was in financial trouble and the company was blaming the union emplyees. they claimed the retirees benefits, medical insurance, work rules made it impossible for them to be profitable. A labor management team of us was formed to look inot the financials of the company.
we found that the near 75% of union workers (all non mangement and executives) accounted for just over 45% of the cost of saleries, benefits and retiree cost, while the other 25% of management and executives was almost 55% of the cost. The $900 a month medical bill for covered union employees was near $2,000 for management and executives because they got better coverage. Union employees got almost 120 hours of paid time off while executives and management averaged over 300 hours of off time. Union emplyees got $10,000 of life insurance while some executives were given $1,000,000 polices paid for by the company. Some employees got 60/40 reimbushed for job related education for themselves while mangement and executives got 100% for their entire immediate family. yes, daughter Stuck-up Stacy of the CEO could go to college in europe to study fashion and get 100% reimbushed while Joe Mechanic took a course in avionics repair and only got 60% reimbushed even though it provided a direct benefit to company.
Union workers in the shop were provided a discount soda and snack machine while executives got weekly lunch and dinner paid for. union employees got a 20% discount at the neighboring health club while manegement and executives got paid membership in the health club and country club. Line staff were allowed to use company office supplies for work (bic stick, paper clips, staplers, memo pads) while executives and mnangement got company paid charge cards for Office max (and belive me they used it).
I would like to see the actual number of Hawaii government emplyees and their actual cost compared to the non-union employees and thei actual cost. bet there is a gap as big as the pacific! When you see them say that retiree cost are thios amount that may also include all the elected politicians, managers, agency heads, directors and such and is not what union workers are costing the state or county, take out the non-union workers cost and lets compare apples to apples.
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