UH and faculty union
remain far apart
on payTalks continue today with a
mediator as the state awaits
news of HGEA arbitration
As the University of Hawaii faculty union and university management meet with a federal mediator today and tomorrow, the two sides are about $34 million apart on a two-year contract with two weeks to go before a threatened strike.
Pay is the only issue still on the table.
University of Hawaii Professional Assembly Executive Director J.N. Musto notes that Gov. Linda Lingle, UH President Evan Dobelle and the Board of Regents all said they believe faculty members are underpaid and deserve raises.
STATE OFFER
Retroactive 1 percent raise effective Aug. 1, 2003
Additional 3 percent raise on Aug. 1, 2004
Estimated cost: $8.5 millionUHPA PROPOSAL
Retroactive 6 percent raise effective July 1, 2003
Additional 8 percent raise July 1, 2004
9 percent increase in lecturer fee schedule
4 percent increase for top-rank professors and researchers on July 1, 2004
12 percent to 23 percent raise in minimum salaries
$2,000-per-credit-hour fee for faculty teaching outreach or summer session classes
$45-per-credit-hour rate for noncredit summer session instructors
Estimated cost: More than $42 millionSOURCES: UHPA AND UH OFFICE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
"I think we should be able to reach an agreement because no one is disagreeing with us on the need to substantially increase faculty salaries," Musto said.
But state chief negotiator Ted Hong cautioned that it is not quite that simple.
The state has to consider what is being paid out to other unions and other state priorities when it makes its offer, Hong said.
"She (Gov. Lingle) has to look at this from a broader view. What are the needs of all?" said Hong, who is also an interim UH regent.
Hanging over the state is an arbitration decision to be announced tomorrow on raises for about 25,000 state and county employees represented by the Hawaii Government Employees Association.
"Even if it is a small increase, it's still going to be a lot of money," Hong said.
But Musto insisted that negotiations for the 3,200 UHPA members should not be dependent on what happens with the HGEA.
"What we are asking for and what we are making should stand on its own," Musto said. "We either have an argument to support salary increases or we don't."
The state's only formal offer, on March 5, would give faculty a 1 percent raise retroactive to August of last year and a 3 percent raise this year.
UH Director of Collective Bargaining Ed Yuen estimates the offer will cost the state $8.5 million over two years. The current annual general fund payroll for university faculty is about $170 million, not including the cost of benefits.
The union is asking for a retroactive 6 percent raise and an 8 percent raise this year and for additional future raises to bring top-scale faculty and lecturers closer to the 50th percentile of pay for similar positions at peer institutions.
Faculty pay is currently about the 30th percentile, according to the faculty union.
Musto estimates the package would cost the state "more than $42 million" over two years.
The average faculty salary for all ranks is $68,665 at Manoa and $52,322 at community colleges. A full professor at UH-Manoa makes an average of $86,553, while a community college professor makes an average salary of $62,097.
Just as the state and the county have the power to raise taxes to pay for a raise, the university, with Board of Regents approval, can raise tuition to give faculty a pay raise.
Dobelle said he does not think it is fair to raise tuition until the current round of scheduled tuition increases are finished in 2006.
Yuen, while acknowledging that tuition is a potential source of revenue, also noted that it costs the university more to pay salaries with tuition money.
He explained that when employees are paid with state general fund money, the state also picks up the costs of health and retirement benefits.
If university money is used for salaries, the university has to pay its share of the benefits.
"For every dollar we paid (in salaries), it would really cost us $1.35," Yuen said. "It's a complicated issue."
UH faculty last went on strike in April 2001 for 13 days.
Should the faculty go out on strike again, the university is advising students to show up for classes.
UH Chief of Staff Sam Callejo, who was Gov. Ben Cayetano's chief of staff during the last faculty strike, said the strike contingency plans drawn up two years ago are being revised and will be put into place should it become necessary.