Gov. Linda Lingle’s spin machine isn’t perfect, but its very active, always working, and fearless in promoting its own positions, even if they are contradictory or at odds with facts.

But in the battle to capture the public’s “hearts and minds” during the current negotiating standoff, the public employee unions are suffering from more than the Lingle spin. They are also dealing with self-inflicted injuries stemming from a long-standing culture of secrecy.

Put simply, the unions seem incapable of effectively telling their own stories. I don’t think its a matter of resources. The unions tend to always be in “circle the wagons” mode, overly defensive when they really need to be laying out their case to the public.

Take a look at the web site of the state’s largest public employee union, the HGEA.

It displays a list of news items, some of which sound like they contain useful information. Here are some sample headlines:

Discussions continue between HGEA and the State
HGEA meeting with the Governor today

HGEA refutes Governor’s claim that final position did not include furloughs

HGEA Arbitration Hearing Day 7: Hearing recessed until Oct. 1

Some employees receive displacement letters, given less than 24 hours to submit RIF questionnaire

HGEA Arbitration Hearing Day 6: HGEA’s witness testifies

HGEA Arbitration Hearing Day 5: HGEA’s witnesses testify

But try to read any of those stories and you’ll discover that they are restricted to “members only”.

So despite spending lots of money on this potential means of communication, the union shies away from telling its own story.

The United Public Workers does a bit better, with more news items, and the union newsletter, available to the public. But its news items are months old. Even in the face of the current crisis, the union isn’t making effective use of its net resources.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association site also features dated content, and inexplicably hides public records in a members-only section, including it’s own lawsuit and subsequent favorable court decision. Wouldn’t you expect that the union would want the public to turn to it for this kind of information? Apparently not.

The mainstream media is of little help. I think organized labor does face a persistent bias, at worst, and inattention at best. Labor beats are a thing of the past. Now beating up on unions seems to be the preferred way to appeal to readers.

Telling their own stories would seem to be vital, under the circumstances, yet union after union instead follows the same old path, hunkering down and saying little publicly, devoting little attention to presenting their own case, while at the same time complaining about the lack of sympathetic news coverage.

Most of the larger unions have their own newspapers, web sites, and at least some public relations resources. Why they are deployed so poorly is a real mystery.

It seems to me that unions should be at the front end of the new journalism movement. If a major union like the HGEA mustered its resources, it could easily put together a staff of experienced reporters and convert its inward-looking newspaper and web site into widely read news sources covering labor issues. Unions could even pool resources to create a labor-oriented newspaper with in-depth reporting.

I don’t want to say that the unions deserve the bad press they get, but it’s certainly true that they aren’t doing themselves or their members any favors with the current policy of tight lips.

Maybe I’m naive, but I think both the unions and the general public would benefit from news and analysis informed by a labor perspective.