Hawaii Teachers Approve Four-Year Pact

After 20 days on strike, Hawaii teachers are back in the classroom, "feeling good about what they did," according to the union's executive director, Joan Lee Husted. Teachers won not only a significant pay increase but also additional professional days and more compensation for continuing education credits. Included: Details of the contract settlements between the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly and the state.

Teachers and students in Hawaii returned to their classrooms Thursday, after members of the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) approved a contract earlier in the week that grants them 16-percent raises over two years.

The agreement ended a 20-day walkout by many of the association's 13,000 members. The strike meant an unexpected vacation for most of the state's 190,000 public school students.

Eighty-six percent of the membership voted in favor of the contract, which covers the period from July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2003, according to the executive director, Joan Lee Husted.

"Teachers feel very good about what they did," Husted tells Education World. "They struck, stayed strong, and got a good package." The value of the total compensation package is about 20 percent, she says.

The agreement includes a $1,100 retention bonus for teachers who belonged to the system in 1999 and 2000. Over the next two years, teachers will also receive two incremental step increases of 3.14 percent each as well as a 10-percent increase. Four instruction days will be converted to four professional development days. Teachers who have master's degrees or professional diplomas will receive 3 percent differential pay, and teachers with doctorates will receive 6 percent.

The contract also boosts starting salaries for teachers with bachelor's degrees from $29,204 to $34,294; those teachers who complete a state Department of Education professional development program could earn $36,695. The top salary also increases from $58,000 to $64,000.

"This is a good and fair contract," Governor Benjamin Cayetano said in a prepared statement. "Our teachers will receive a significant pay raise that includes excellent incentives for additional pay increases based on professional development." HSTA members went on strike April 5, the same day members of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly (UHPA), the university's 3,000-member faculty union, walked off the job. This was the first time in the nation's history that a state's entire education system, from kindergarten to graduate school, shut down.

The university faculty reached a two-year agreement with the state April 17. Faculty members are scheduled to receive $2,325 increases as of August 1 and a 6 percent increase August 1, 2002.

Article by Gary Hopkins
Education World®
Copyright © 2006 Education World

11/02/1998