[ TEACHER STRIKE ]
Still a chance University of Hawaii and community college faculty went on strike this morning despite being "excruciatingly close" in their negotiations with the state late last night.
for UHPA fix
UH and community college
faculty are very close to an
agreement with the stateUH builders will honor strike
By Treena Shapiro
Star-BulletinThe University of Hawaii Professional Assembly and the state remained at an impasse after an exchange of contract proposals.
The union's 3,000 members were expected for picket duty today between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., or later on some campuses, affecting about 44,000 college students at the 10 campuses of the University of Hawaii system.
"We're excruciatingly close but we have not settled," said UHPA Executive Director J.N. Musto.
The state's latest offer is for a 4 percent raise and a 1 percent merit raise in the first year, and a 5 percent raise in the second year with another 1 percent merit raise. The proposal covers all university and community faculty but not lecturers.
Musto said if lecturers do not get a pay increase, there will be no settlement.
UHPA's latest counteroffer is a 12 percent pay increase over two years, plus 2 percent in merit raises. While both sides are only 3 percent apart in pay raises, differing philosophies widen the gap.
The state's offer includes a large merit incentive "to recognize those that stand above others, to encourage them to perform more, be more innovative," according to the state's chief negotiator Davis Yogi.
Musto said the state's offer of merit raises would be handed out at the discretion of provosts and deans. "We can't be guaranteed that the decisions will not be arbitrary or capricious," he said.
For some professors the hard part was setting aside their work and cutting off contact with students. Many gave their students assignments so they could keep up with the course even without faculty assistance.
"Our purpose is not to hurt students. On the other hand, strikes aren't effective if they don't have an effect on somebody," said philosophy professor Mary Tiles, a member of the union negotiation team. "Somebody needs to notice that we're on strike."
Both Tiles and her husband James teach in UH-Manoa's philosophy department and while they face a total loss of income for the duration of the strike, Tiles said their position is better than that of other married colleagues.
For example, Arindam Chakrabarti and Vrinda Dalmiya are regretting for the first time their decision four years ago to come to philosophy department from tenured positions at respected universities in New Delhi. Chakrabarti said what little savings they have is designated for their 9-year-old daughter's education.
"Our major, major panic is that we have been told that we won't get health benefits (while on strike) and we have a child who just two days back broke her hand and she is in a cast now," Chakrabarti said.
UH spokesperson Jim Manke said the Board of Regents still has not responded to the governor's order that the faculty be placed on unauthorized leave of absence without benefits for the duration of the strike. "The issue has been raised and the legal office is taking a look at it, however we think that employees will not be cut off immediately," he said.
Nonunion lecturers and graduate students today face the quandary of deciding whether to jeopardize their contracts by honoring the picket lines.
Kalani Fujiwara, a political science lecturer at Honolulu Community College said he was going to join the picket lines when he was not teaching his two classes.
He plans to enter campus using a pass given to him and other lecturers to prove they are not members of the faculty union. "My colleagues here at UH are being very, very supportive of lecturers," he said. Still, Fujiwara said that although crossing the picket line would insure his job for the time being, "if you cross the line, you're going to enrage your colleagues and they're the ones that could decide whether you're going to get a full-time position later."
C. Mamo Kim, president of the Graduate Student Organization at UH-Manoa, said it is advising students not to cross the picket line, but it is an individual decision, especially for graduate assistants who will be penalized if they fail to teach their classes.
[ TEACHER STRIKE ]
Unionized UH John Radcliffe, associate executive director of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, said the Building Trades Council has said it will honor the UHPA picket line.
builders will honor
strike lines
Construction on state
universities will be shut downBy Lisa Asato
Star-Bulletin"This is a sanctioned strike and because it is they will respect the strike lines if they are put up," he said. That means that all union construction on struck university campuses will be shut down, Radcliffe said.
Building and Construction Trades Council executive director William "Buzzy" Hong said he would expect construction workers to honor campus picket lines. "There is no organized plan," Hong said, but "historically, building trades people honor picket lines. They support other labor organizations and they know what to do when they see a picket line."
Hong said the library construction project on the University of Hawaii Manoa campus would be affected.
Other unions not directly involved in the planned strike today are making decisions on an individual basis whether to honor strike lines that threaten to shut down the state's education system.
The Hawaii State AFL-CIO hasn't sent official word to its member unions as to how to handle the possible pickets, said Terry Lau, director of the organization's committee on political education.
"It's not for us to dictate to local unions," he said. "We can only suggest that all unions will support the picket but every union has their own policy on this." Contractual provisions may mandate some union employees to work, he said.
But the state's largest union is telling nonteaching members they must report to work or face disciplinary action, said Randy Kusaka, Hawaii Government Employees Association spokesman.
HGEA is instructing its non-teaching members to report to work, ask for the picket captain and "wait patiently until it opens up to cross over." HGEA also advises workers to avoid doing the work of striking employees. But if members are ordered to do the work, he said, they should comply and then report it to the union at 536-2351 on Oahu, 935-6841 on the Big Island, 244-5508 on Maui, and 245-6751 on Kauai.
Kusaka said when HGEA units went on strike in 1994 for 12 days, educators supported strikers, joining picket lines on their own time and sharing drinks and spam musubi. "They were very supportive, and we have not forgotten," he said.
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>> Governor's strike Web site
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