HSTA President: We Just Want To Negotiate
The Hawaii State Teachers Association‘s legal complaint against the state is really simple, says President Wil Okabe: “We want to bargain in good faith.”
The union on Friday filed a prohibited practice complaint against Gov. Neil Abercrombie, schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi and their labor negotiators. The 37-page document lists a number of accusations against the state, all of which add up to one bottom line, Okabe told Civil Beat: The state interfered with the union’s right to bargain collectively by preemptively deserting negotiations and communicating Hawaii’s “last, best and final” offer directly to teachers after HSTA negotiators rejected it.
On June 24, six days before teachers’ two-year contract expired, Matayoshi and Abercrombie went public with their plan to impose new employment terms on the state’s 12,500 teachers without union approval. The Hawaii Department of Education one day earlier had sent a similar announcement to teachers, along with an explanation of the new terms, including a 1.5 percent salary schedule reduction, directed leave without pay on certain non-instructional days, and an increased employee contribution to health insurance premiums. The new employment terms went into effect on July 1.
The union isn’t taking issue with the terms themselves at this point, but with the way they were imposed, said Okabe. The state usurped the union’s right to negotiate an agreement, he said, and teachers’ right to vote on it. He contends that if the state’s behavior in this case is upheld, it could permanently strip labor unions of their rights in Hawaii and across the nation.
Before the June 24 announcement, as far as HSTA’s bargaining team was concerned, Okabe explained, they were still trying to negotiate a fair settlement by the July 1 deadline. And they certainly never expected the Department of Education to go directly to teachers with an offer they had already rejected.
(Meanwhile, Abercrombie’s team was under the impression that they had already shaken hands on the state’s “last, best and final” offer. Read more from Abercrombie about his side of the story.)
The decision by Abercrombie and Matayoshi to withdraw from bargaining before the contract expiration date is unprecedented, Okabe said.
“Never in our 40-year history have any of the parties just gotten up from the table and declared an impasse 10 days before the negotiations deadline,” he explained. “In years past, negotiators have worked well into the night on the last day to work out an agreement.”
Traditionally, the union’s negotiating team has first decided whether it will recommend an agreement. It then passes it on to a board made up of teachers from across the state. The board decides whether it should be taken to a vote of the union’s members. In this case, the state’s offer had not made the cut and HSTA negotiators planned to return to the table, Okabe said.
That is why union negotiators were so shocked when they learned their members had received the offer directly from the state.
“We had no idea they were doing that, and it contained everything we rejected,” he said. “It was the first time our members had ever received anything like that, and nobody really knew what to do.”
All the union is asking is to return to the negotiating table, Okabe said. “We don’t feel like that’s an unreasonable request.”
The union’s official complaint filed with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board seeks relief from the imposed contract and asks the board to direct the state back into negotiations. The state has 10 days to file a formal response.
On Monday, Abercrombie published a rebuttal to HSTA’s claims, in the form of an FAQ. His administration claims that HSTA rejected an offer for a federal mediator back in February, and in June never presented a counter-offer to the state’s “last, best and final” offer. By not recommending the state’s offer to union members, it relinquished the teachers’ right to vote on the deal, Abercrombie said.
He says the state imposed the new employment conditions on teachers in order to ensure that students could start school in August and to keep Hawaii on course for Race to the Top.
was similar: “Our singular focus continues to be preparing for the upcoming school year.”
Related coverage:
- Gov Posts FAQ On Hawaii Teachers Contract
- Details of Hawaii Teachers Contract Imposed By State
- Teachers To File Legal Challenge This Week
- No Legal Action By Hawaii Teachers — Yet
- HSTA Pay Cuts Comparable To HGEA’s
- Could Teacher Contract Talks Affect Race To The Top?
- Gov: Union Negotiators Agreed To HSTA Contract
- ‘Last, Best, Final’ Offer For Hawaii Teachers
