Category Archives: Labor

Top labor picks this campaign season

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Here’s a quick-and-dirty profile of where labor union money is going during this campaign season.

What I did here was to rank the top contributors to candidates during the period from January 1, 2020 through July 24, 2020. I then selected the unions that devoted the most money to candidates, sometimes through various related union entities.

The result is a list that may have a few errors, but identifies those candidates that have drawn the most union funds. Even though these data haven’t been double-checked and cleaned up, I think it provides a pretty fair look at the situation.

Union backed candidates 2020

Historical statistics of Hawaii

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I have a simple recommendation. If you ever find yourself wondering what Hawaii was like in the “old” days and how it changed over time, an extremely useful reference is Robert Schmidt’s “Historical Statistics of Hawaii.”

Schmidt compiled the book when he was serving at state statistician. The book has 26 chapters covering different aspects of the community and economy, each with an introduction that surveys the history of the collection of data on that particular subject. It’s really a treasure trove of fascinating bits and pieces of history, although you’ll have to get comfortable looking at data presented in table form.

This is a huge printed book, running nearly 700 oversize pages. I once found a used copy in a thrift shop, and used hardcover copies can be found for about $25 from Amazon or the independent bookstores that sell via Alibris.com.

This weekend I was looking for data to illustrate the changes in post-WWII Hawaii. I ended up using data showing how the population shifted from rural to urban areas from the 1800s through to the late 1960s, and showed how the number of private cars doubled between 1945 and 1950, and then doubled again by 1962. Another chart that I used traced the changes in retail sales as both downtown Honolulu and small mom & pop stores were overtaken and overshadowed by Ala Moana Center, Kahala Mall, and other regional malls during the 1950s and 1960s.

In any case, an extremely useful and interesting resources.

But here’s the big hint. It’s also available for free as a 22MB pdf file from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.

I’ve downloaded a copy and filed it for quick future reference.

You might want to do the same.

Former journalist expected to plead guilty to union ballot-stuffing conspiracy

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What does your agency do when it’s spokesman, the one who deals with the media, is charged with taking part in a conspiracy to falsify election records of the union he was previously employed by?

Russell Yamanoha, spokesman for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, which is in charge of developing Honolulu’s troubled and vastly over budget rail system, is expected to enter a guilty plea next Tuesday to charges that he joined others in a conspiracy to falsify records of a union election in 2015. The federal charges can be found here.

The charges are part of a much larger fraud and money laundering case against the union’s former leader, Brian Ahakuelo, and members of his family.

The federal charges allege that in January 2015, while Yamanoha was director of communications and public relations for IBEW Local 1260, he and others prepared fraudulent ballots marked in favor of a proposed union dues increase. These fraudulent ballots were then allegedly switched with the real ballots cast by union members on Guam, in order to make it appear that the measure had been approved by the union’s members.

Yamanoha is a former journalist, who had been sports director and anchor for KHNL, but resigned in 2007 to pursue focus on real estate sales. In 2011, IBEW records show he was employed as a business representative, but was quickly promoted the following year to assistant business manager and director of communications. In 2015, named media director for the union.

In 2013, Yamanoha was appointed to a four-year term on the Honolulu Neighborhood Commission. He was selected by then-Council Chair Ernie Martin, and approved by the Honolulu City Council.

Yamanoha still holds an active real estate salesperson license. State licensing records show he has been employed by Primary Properties, Inc., doing business as Engel and Volkers.

So if Yamanoha indeed pleads guilty to the conspiracy charge as scheduled, does this scuttle his job as spokesman for the rail project, as well as his broader career as a public relations/communications specialist? Does taking part in stuffing the ballot box in a union election disqualify him from positions in which public trust is important?

It’s a sad moment for Hawaii’s journalism and PR professionals, or at least that’s how it looks from my seat.

Throwback Thursday: December 1999

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Here’s a blast from the past. It’s excerpted from a longer post here dated December 13, 1999.

I guess United Public Workers state director Gary Rodrigues is in that small minority who are very angry that the Star-Bulletin did not cease to be on October 30.

I started getting the calls on Friday night alerting me to the personal attack in the “Malama Pono” newsletter just mailed to some 13,000 members of UPW, the state’s second largest public employee union and a subject of an ongoing investigation. This follows a shorter attack printed in the last issue of the newsletter.

It seems I’m a cover guy for the new issue, but it’s not flattering. The cover features my photo, with snakes dancing out of my head like halloween dreadlocks. The snakes, in turn, have the faces of Star-Bulletin editor and publisher, John Flanagan; managing editor Dave Shapiro; editorial page editor Diane Chang; and my wife, Meda Chesney-Lind. From the following 16 pages of invective, I presume that the union’s state director, Gary Rodrigues, is unhappy with my reporting. Of course, he has refused since day one to be interviewed, and has instructed all staff to hang up if I phone, and respond with abuse if I show up in person. The result has been a long series of stories over 15 months.

There are different reactions to this strange attack. I think it is kind of humorous. My wife doesn’t agree, neither do several of the UPW members named in the newsletter.

It was about 15 months later that Rodrigues and one of his daughters were indicted on a laundry list of federal charges. The last story I had the pleasure of writing for the Star-Bulletin before the old newspaper closed and I lost my job was reporting on the indictments.