Hawaii Teachers Union To Return To Negotiations

Katherine Poythress/Civil Beat

The Hawaii State Teachers Association has accepted Gov. Neil Abercrombie's invitation to continue negotiating a new contract, but still does not plan to withdraw its labor complaint against the state.

The decision followed a two-week listening tour union leaders conducted to find out why teachers last month overwhelmingly rejected an agreement that negotiators reached with the state to replace the contract Abercrombie imposed on them in July last year. That contract included a 5 percent pay cut and increase in health costs.

The state and union came to a new agreement after a six-month stalemate in negotiations and in the middle of a protracted labor complaint against the state for the unilaterally imposed contract. The six-year contract would have meant an end to the expensive legal case and included a pay raise for teachers every year they received a "satisfactory" or better on a new, as-yet-undeveloped annual evaluation.

Both the governor and HSTA President Wil Okabe were perplexed by the 2-1 rejection, but Abercrombie invited the union to present a counter offer.

Okabe took the governor up on his offer in a letter dated Feb. 8.

"Since receiving your letter of January 20, 2012 requesting a counter-proposal from our teachers, we initiated an extensive process of talking and listening to teachers," he wrote. "We visited 80% of the schools and have received written responses from over 5,000 teachers. As a result of what we have learned, we have made the following decisions:

1) We accept your offer to return to the bargaining table;

2) We have expanded the Negotiations Team to include the State Officers and additional representation from the Negotiations Committee; and

3) If we reach a tentative agreement with you, the Negotiations Committee will make a recommendation to the Board of Directors."

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