UH faculty
union wants formal
negotiations open
to public

The union chief says public
meetings could spur cooperation
and limit 'unreasonableness'

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

The union representing professionals in the University of Hawaii and community colleges has proposed that its formal negotiations with the state be open to faculty, students and public observers.

"Perhaps negotiating before the public will temper unreasonableness and lead toward a more cooperative approach to addressing some major issues at the institution through contract language," J.N. Musto, executive director and chief negotiator for the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, said in a letter to the state's chief negotiator, Davis Yogi.

Union and state teams met yesterday for the first session in negotiations on a new contract for 3,000 professors, instructors and researchers.

Yogi did not attend because of a Cabinet meeting, and he did not respond to a request for comment on the open-meeting proposal.

UHPA's proposal calls for a 2 percent raise in higher salary categories in the first year of a two-year contract, and a 4 percent increase in the second year. It calls for elimination of some lower salary steps in the first year, which would have the effect of higher percentage hikes for people in those categories.

The current contract expires June 30.

"This is my 19th year of bargaining, and I've seen the kabuki dance. It's time for that to end," Musto said at a news conference. "The sad fact is, there is never a settlement without there being a crisis. . . . It's always at the 11th hour and 59th minute. It's time to find another way."

Musto said he negotiated in public for the union at Central Michigan University, at the administration's suggestion, and "what came out was one of the best contracts. I know it's been done elsewhere."

He wrote in the letter delivered Wednesday: "At a time when the University of Hawaii is on the cusp of a serious decline in our capacity to provide higher education to the state of Hawaii as a result of almost a decade of declining state support, we believe the public has a right to see what the parties are proposing with respect to one of the single largest factors impacting the institution, the contract with bargaining Unit 7."

Musto said the UHPA legislative package this year includes proposals that build on the autonomy the Legislature gave the University of Hawaii in the last session.

One proposal would establish separate bargaining units for UH blue-collar and white-collar employees outside statewide units and provide that the Board of Regents does the cost bargaining.

"You don't have autonomy if you don't have control," Musto said.