HONOLULU -- Protestors are gearing up to demonstrate when President George W. Bush appears at a Republican fund-raiser. One of the largest groups protesting will be civilian workers employed at Hawaii's military bases.

More than 16,000 Hawaii residents work at military bases, the largest number at Pearl Harbor shipyard. They were busy making signs to protest the Bush administration's push to revamp personnel rules for defense workers.

Civilian workers at Pearl Harbor and at other military bases said Bush might zoom right past them, but they are hoping that with all the media here, they may get national attention.

They said want the president to know they are concerned about what they see as an erosion of their rights and their protections against discrimination and patronage.

"We'll be a speck in the wind, but hopefully we will be stuck to his windshield, so when he is driving off, hopefully, we can make a news broadcast across the nation and put us on the radar screen, (and they) don't just ignore us," said Richard Zamora, of the Federation of Government Employees.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he needs the personnel changes to give more flexibility in hiring and firing and to better tie pay to performance.

Longtime Pearl Harbor employee Al Hoyle said he will join the protest against the president "to let him know we don't like what he is doing. He is trying to take away all the workers rights," Hoyle said.

The civil-service changes now under consideration will affect more than 700,000 defense workers.

Supporters of Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean will also be protesting. They say their candidate will do more than Bush to push for Hawaiian rights.