March 30, 2020
Via Regular U.S. Mail
And Fax ($08) 586-0006
The Honorable David Y. Ige
Governor, State of Hawaii
Executive Chambers, State Capitol
Honolulu, HI 96813
Dear Governor Ige:
The undersigned leaders of the six public sector exclusive representatives wish to address to you
several significant and critical concerns with the manner in which the collective public employers are
addressing the COVID-1 9 pandemic. While we most certainly are not attempting to put ourselves
forth as experts, we can report some disturbing trends that are creating and exacerbating the anxiety
level of public employees at a time when many of them are already stressed by having to continue to
provide essential services to our community.
To start, we are gravely concerned about the lack of communication to employees about the plan(s)
being put into place to address the COVID-19 situation. There is no flow of information to the line
level from the respective chief executives of each jurisdiction. The lack of communication is
definitely apparent at the line level, where employees are often operating on direction that is days
old, and supervisors without adequate instruction are clueless on how to address the many questions
and concerns of line employees. To make it worse, all of us have been in touch with managers at
higher levels who have expressed a similar dismay at the lack of information, and particularly
information on exposure concerns. To help facilitate communication with employees, your team
must be more consistent in sharing information with each of us; we should not be hearing things in
the press, and face having to explain to those we represent.
It is further apparent to us that the public messages being shared by each chief executive is not
aligned with the reality being faced by the public workforce. It is our belief that it is absolutely
necessary that each jurisdiction should issue regular and consistent messages to their employees. We
remind you that it is our members your employees that will do much of the work to pull our
community out of this crisis. They will not succeed without regular information and assurances from
their employers.
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This raises a second concern the lack of coordination between the various public employers. While
we understand and accept that each jurisdiction faces different challenges that requires each to do
some unique things, there are many areas where consistency and uniformity would be ideal. To start,
it would be absolutely necessary to see the public employers, where work conditions don’t prevent it,
to enforce the social distancing rule imposed on the general public. All of us continue to receive
reports from employees of this basic rule of containment being violated by their employers.
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We implore you to consider a greater amount of coordination and where appropriate, unilateral
action, to ensure compliance with the direction being provided by the Department of Health. There

 The Honorable David Y. Ige
March 30, 2020
Page 2

are some things that should apply to all employees of all employers. The Human Resources staff of
each jurisdiction should work more in concert to develop consistent and uniform policy direction on
safe practices, which must then be enforced. It is all too common every day to hear stories of how
decision making has been shoved down to the department level and how these departments, of their
own volition, have gone rogue, taking actions in direct conflict with your own pronouncements.
With greater coordination and direction this would not happen.
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Finally, we collectively ask that each of our organizations be better informed by your administration
as things change. All the undersigned pledge that we are here to help and be flexible in working with
those we represent to make sure that our public workforce is available to work through this crisis.
While we will not insist on following the normal contractual requirement of consultation on policy
changes that we know must be made “on the fly,” we must urge you to make sure that we are
contacted immediately as these decisions get made. A simple phone call would do. In that way we
will be better prepared to deal with employee questions and concerns and offer our assistance to
assure smooth implementation.
Thank you for your consideration in addressing our universal concerns.

Sincerely,

Wilbert Hoick, Executive Director
Hawaii State Teachers Association
Malcolm Lutu, President
State of Hawaii Organization of Police
Randy Perreira, Executive Director
Hawaii Government Employees Association
Christian fern, Executive Director
University of Hawaii Professional Assembly
Dayton Nakanelua, State Director
United Public Workers
Robert Lee, President
Hawaii Fire fighters Association