[ TEACHER STRIKE ]
‘Study-in’ at Capitol University of Hawaii students were planning a "study-in" at the state Capitol today to remind the state and the faculty union what is caught in the middle: their education.
aims to speed UH solution
The state says it has a new offer,
Pay-raise measure advances
but no date has been set for talks
Budget wins bipartisan support By Treena Shapiro
Star-BulletinLeila Rothwell Sullivan, a third-year law student, said students will bring their books to the Capitol every day until a settlement is reached and they can return to the classroom.
"We'd like to get back into the classroom, and we'd like to continue on with our educations," she said.
Negotiations have yet to resume as the University of Hawaii faculty enter the seventh day on the picket lines, despite comments on both sides that suggest they are close to a settlement.
UH administrators said that out of 3,271 faculty members on the 10 UH system campuses, 422 members, or 13 percent, crossed the picket line yesterday. Out of 3,354 classes scheduled for yesterday, 641, or 19 percent, were held, the university said.
J.N. Musto, executive director of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, said yesterday that he has been in contact with the state's chief negotiator, Davis Yogi, but has been unable to pin him down on a day and time to meet again with the federal mediator.
Yesterday, Yogi said again that the two sides would meet "soon," but refused to elaborate. "I've been keeping UHPA informed," he said.
Yogi said the state's bargaining team has been working with university administrators to refine their proposals so that they can defend their offer before they go back to the table. "What we're trying to do is make sure we have our T's crossed and our I's dotted when questions come up regarding those counterproposals."
The new offer is likely to address two issues that prevented a settlement last week: community-college workload and pay raises for lecturers. "We have to find compromises in each other's proposals on workload and the lecturers," Yogi said.
Students have generally come out in support of their professors, but their concerns are growing as each day passes with no new negotiations, which is why they have decided to make their presence felt in the Capitol, both with the study-in and with a march from Honolulu Community College planned for tomorrow.
"We want them to remember we're here and we're waiting," Sullivan said.
Even those who support the faculty are put in awkward positions, either because they have to teach or attend classes on campus.
Lance Collins, a graduate student in political science, has worked out a compromise to honor both his teaching contract with the university and the picket lines. "We're having class off campus," he said.
His students have offered their homes for class and potlucks for the duration of the strike, he said.
Other students have had to cross the picket lines every day, and while they support the faculty, they have grown tired of striking faculty trying to discourage them from entering the campus.
Jennifer, a senior who asked not to reveal her last name, fearing punitive action from her striking professors, said on the first two days of the strike, faculty yelled at her to go home when she was trying to find a bus stop so she could get to work.
Since she lives on campus and has to attend one class taught by a professor and a laboratory class taught by a graduate assistant, Jennifer has had to cross the picket line several times.
"You just feel like they're angry at you because you have to go to class because they're still holding classes," she said, adding that the animosity from the faculty has made several of her classmates afraid to attend class.
Musto said he walked the picket lines yesterday reminding faculty that students were not the problem. "I told them not to yell at the students, and they are not doing it anymore."
Jennifer confirmed that yesterday was better. Faculty members at the entrance to East-West Road were "smiling and playing music and dancing," she said.
>> HSTA Web site
>> UHPA Web site
>> State Web site
>> Governor's strike Web site
>> DOE Web site
With Hawaii's public-education strikes looming above the chambers of the state Capitol, state House members approved a voluntary furlough measure that could help pay for teachers' pay raises. House passes measure
to cut state workers’ hours
to fund teacher raisesLegislators also approve
By Pat Omandam
step raises for each year
of satisfactory serviceStar-Bulletin
The Democratic House majority approved an amendment to a Senate bill that allows the state to voluntarily furlough an employee because of a lack of work or funds, while still protecting the employee's benefits.
For example, an employee could opt to work a four-day week, and the state could save one day's pay.
"The net effect will be, the taxpayers of the state of Hawaii will pay more for less services," countered Charles Djou, who along with the rest of the 19-member House GOP voted against the bill.
The measure was among hundreds of bills the House returned to the Senate yesterday as both sides prepare for conference committee debate in the next two weeks to hammer out differences in the proposals.
As striking teachers and professors watched yesterday's session in the chamber gallery and protested outside the Capitol, legislators approved bills that give teachers step raises for each year of satisfactory service. These step raises are not directly related to the pay raises at issue in teachers' and university faculty's contract negotiations.
Most of the debate on incremental pay raises was in the House, where Manoa Democrat Ed Case said mandating pay raises for public school teachers "cuts the legs" out of the state's collective-bargaining process. He also objected to raises based solely on experience.
"The way of the world today is, it should be performance on the job and merit, and that should enter into the picture," Case said.
House Finance Chairman Dwight Takamine countered, however, that the serious teacher shortage in Hawaii is partly due to the lack of annual incremental raises. The Legislature must place public education as its priority, he said.
Also before House and Senate conferees is a bill that establishes a state-union health benefit trust to provide health benefits to active and retired state employees. The state-county government's contribution to the Hawaii Public Employee Health Fund will rise to nearly $1 billion a year in 2013, and the Legislature must act, said House Legislative Management Chairman Nathan Suzuki (D, Aliamanu).
Suzuki said the measure would benefit every government worker and retiree, who will be able to customize health plans to fit their needs.
Another collective-bargaining bill approved by the House restores the right to strike for all collective-bargaining units except firefighters and police officers. The same measure also does away with essential employees and essential positions while minimizing the adverse effects on public workers.
>> HSTA Web site
>> UHPA Web site
>> State Web site
>> Governor's strike Web site
>> DOE Web site
A budget that can take care of teacher pay raises, according to supporters, has won bipartisan support in the Senate. Budget wins backing
for focus on educationSupporters say the Senate budget
By Richard Borreca
can pay for teacher raises
Star-BulletinSen. Brian Taniguchi (D, Manoa), Ways and Means Committee chairman, calculates that his budget has $1.2 billion for education in each year of the two-year budget.
He said Gov. Ben Cayetano's version of the budget had no room for any public-worker pay raises, so the Legislature was forced to cut Cayetano's programs in order to pay for projected pay raises.
"He essentially dared the Legislature to find the money," Taniguchi said. "We have provided for new funding, and we made room for the government pay raises."
But as all public education in Hawaii remains halted because of the teacher and university faculty strikes, lawmakers are left only to add projected or possible amounts to cover pay raises.
"I am not in any way trying to undermine the governor's ability to negotiate by my actions," Taniguchi said.
"I am merely doing the responsible thing: anticipating costs for negotiated settlement for both HSTA and UHPA. That's it."
The Senate version of the budget includes about $200 million extra for teacher pay raises.
But Taniguchi warned that much of the $7 billion budget is made up of costs the state cannot control, such as increased money for court-ordered settlements.
Sen. Fred Hemmings (R, Kailua) defended Taniguchi's handling of the budget, including keeping money in the budget for teacher pay raises, but said the entire system needed overhauling.
"The system is broke; we have to change," Hemmings said.
"There's a way to fix the system: zero-based budgeting."
He urged that the state redraft the entire budget every four years to force state departments to justify all their programs and expenses.
>> HSTA Web site
>> UHPA Web site
>> State Web site
>> Governor's strike Web site
>> DOE Web site
