“Unprecedented” is a word that’s been used, even overused, in this dreary recessionary year.

But it definitely applies to the looming labor and budgetary crisis. One would think that with June 30 and July 1 deadlines around the corner — the dates when, respectively, contracts for three public worker unions expire and the next budgetary year begins — the contract negotiating teams would be in lockdown, working around the clock to get a deal struck.
Closing another budgetary hole, one that will require substantial labor savings that the governor estimates at $688 million over two years, should demand that the negotiating teams burn the midnight oil.
But if either side is feeling that level of urgency to reach a settlement, it’s not showing yet.
While it’s a relief that Gov. Linda Lingle has summoned a federal mediator in the case, producing a four-hour session on Tuesday, the fact that the second meeting was set for tomorrow — almost a week later — is discouraging. This is urgency?
What’s been on display is a lot of posturing, which is to be expected in a collective-bargaining showdown. Lingle publicly asserts that she has the power to implement furloughs. Unions balk and challenge that assertion in court.
That’s fine for Act One of this drama. Now it’s time to bring the theatrics to a close and do some hard bargaining.
Lingle says that should the courts side with the unions, she can lay off 2,500 employees in departments directly under her control. She’s restricting budgets for those she doesn’t manage — principally, the Department of Education and the University of Hawaiçi — by equivalent amounts, so layoffs there seem likely final outcomes, too, as there are few alternative courses to take.
The unions and the state should not let this crisis reach that point and should seek a settlement that does the least harm possible to employee household incomes. There’s room in the employee benefits package for givebacks. Such an alternative plan could save enough money without the need for three furlough days per month, which poses a needlessly harsh burden on many families, especially at the lower end of the pay scale.
Both sides will have to put the politics aside, be willing to make concessions and work together to help close the budget gap. Further delay tactics can accomplish little more than dig a deeper budgetary hole and make the ultimate solution even more painful.
Tomorrow, negotiating teams will reconvene with the mediator. Their task is now of mission-critical importance. And they must demonstrate to the taxpaying public that they understand: The time for posturing is over.