The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades will protest at the state capitol today at 11:00 a.m. on Punchbowl Street to protest Aloha Stadium work still being done by non-local workers.

The ‘Local Jobs for Local People’ law passed yet out-of-state job poachers are being paid good taxpayer money. According to Act 68, out-of-state workers should not be working on state and city jobs. The economy has not turned around and our workers are facing their third economically devastating year. It doesn’t make sense. We won but the legislatures beholden to Lingle are still trying to prevent what is rightfully law from happening.

Last spring, the bills dubbed the “Local Jobs for Local People” bill, passed both houses only to be vetoed by then governor Linda Lingle. Then both houses unanimously overrode the governor’s veto to make Act 68 law. However, taxpayer money is still being paid to out-of-state workers for city jobs siphoning money out of the local economy still stuck in the recession and in a deep deficit and facing a 22% Japanese tourism downturn this year.

The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades is a labor union of 140,000 plus men and women across the United States and Canada who are committed to providing the finest craftsmanship in the collective trades. Locally, District Council 50 was formed in 1999 and is comprised of painters, glaziers, architectural metal and glassworkers, carpet, linoleum and soft tile installers and drywall finishers and tapers. DC50 is more than 2,000 strong in the state of Hawaii.