UPW challenger
had management help,
worker admits

Union chief Rodrigues says
the assistance violated collective-
bargaining law

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

A United Public Workers member who unsuccessfully challenged Gary Rodrigues for the top job of state director last year had the help of a management employee in the state Department of Human Resources Development, according to testimony yesterday.

Personnel management specialist Solette Perry told the Hawaii Labor Relations Board that she helped Frank Hirazumi prepare campaign literature and made telephone calls on his behalf to Big Island UPW members on her own time.

The union brought charges against Perry, Ann Morimoto, chief of the Labor Relations Division, and department Director James Takushi for allegedly engaging in practices prohibited under collective-bargaining law.

State Deputy Attorney General Chris Nakagawa told the board that the reason the charge was brought was "to provide a forum for a personal dispute" between Rodrigues and Perry, a former UPW business agent.

Morimoto said Perry did not violate any state rules. "Like any other campaign . . . as long as it's not done on work time and it's not using state equipment and you're not using your position to influence people," it is permissible. She said it is common practice to allow people running for office in public-employee unions to "walk through and distribute literature . . . as long as we allow equal access and it doesn't disrupt work."

Asked why she was charged, Morimoto said, "From the questions asked, my wrongdoing was hiring Solette."

Perry said she had placed calls from her state office to Hirazumi's pager, leaving her home phone number, and Hirazumi said he had called her at the office a couple of times. Otherwise, she said, they met in parking lots, she did her telephoning and typing at home and had campaign handouts copied at Kinko's.

UPW attorney Danny Vasconcellos focused much of his questioning on Hirazumi's use of a confidential list of UPW delegates and their telephone numbers.

Vasconcellos questioned Perry for more than two hours during the five-hour hearing, displaying Hirazumi campaign materials with her handwriting on it.

Vasconcellos attempted to learn names of other Hirazumi supporters. Perry responded: "I hesitate to name any others. I don't want to subject them to any kind of retaliatory action." Board chairman Bert Tomasu asked, "Why do you need to know about anyone else? We're concerned about Miss Perry," halting that line of questioning.

Perry resigned in 1996 after four years with the union and started the state job a month later. Her state job includes handling union grievances at the third level, the last step before arbitration. But she said the United Public Workers staff "were instructed they are not to have any discussions with me," effectively removing her from handling UPW cases.

"I feel if I had been able to proceed, we may have been able to resolve some of the problems."

She said after the hearing was recessed for the day that she discovered after joining UPW that she is related to James Brown, who was UPW president in 1981 when Rodrigues was first selected state director.

Rodrigues ran Brown out of office after a two-year struggle in which both sides brought charges to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

She said Rodrigues twice suspended her for one day without pay for unsatisfactory job performance.

"I wasn't a person who'd schmooze with him. We've never had a good working relationship."

Rodrigues did not attend the hearing and could not be reached for comment.

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UPW challenger may be
ousted from union

By Star-Bulletin staff

United Public Workers State Director Gary Rodrigues beat his challenger by a vote of 160-28 and is now attempting to run him out of the union.

Rodrigues brought charges against Frank Hirazumi after the Oct. 25 election at the UPW convention, the first time in 14 years that anyone has run against him for the top post in the 15,000-member union.

Hirazumi, a painter at the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus, has been in the union for 11 years and served as a steward.

After his unsuccessful bid for the top job, he also lost his position on the union's state board in an election by Oahu division members.

He said yesterday that he has been charged with:

Falsely claiming he was doing union business when he took off from work.

Enlisting the employer's interference in a union election.

Illegally obtaining a list of the UPW convention delegates and providing it to the employer.

Hirazumi will have a judicial hearing conducted by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The charges were brought under the AFSCME international constitution.

If the charges are upheld, a hearing officer could impose the penalty of ousting Hirazumi from the union. That would render him ineligible to run for office again.