UH moves closer to strike

Negotiations between the state and the University of Hawai‘i faculty union stalemated over the weekend, and union members say the situation is propelling them almost inevitably toward a strike.

The UH faculty union says Gov. Ben Cayetano is vindictive. Advertiser library photo • Jan. 29, 2001

"I’ve never seen a more dire situation at the university, and I’ve been here since 1964," said Alexander Malahoff, president of the University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly (UHPA) and professor of history at the Manoa campus. "The faculty is united and determined. If the politicians want a strike, God bless them, they’ll get it."

Janice Nuckols, Windward Community College history professor and UHPA member, agreed with that assessment.

"(Gov.) Ben Cayetano has mobilized the faculty," she said. "I will strike now."

The state has rejected the latest contract proposal by UHPA, citing a faculty demand that community college professors be given credit for non-teaching activities.

The state’s chief negotiator, Davis Yogi, said Saturday that the state objected to a UHPA proposal on Feb. 21 to reduce the teaching workload for community college faculty from five courses to four per semester, in exchange for a 12 percent pay increase.

The pay increase of 12 percent was offered by the union as a compromise from a higher pay request. The union asked that community college professors be given credit for community activities in the same way university professors are given credit for research and other non-teaching activities.

Yogi called the proposal, "a cleverly disguised, self-serving gesture because in addition to paying professors more for teaching less, the community colleges would have to hire more union lecturers to perform the same amount of work."

Nuckols, who has taught at the community college for 31 years, said she thought the request was fair. But, she said that was not the issue most likely to send her to the picket lines.

"They’re still trying to pay us only nine months out of the year," she said. "That’s what is so insulting. Nine months, and we wouldn’t get credit for retirement (for the other three months) and we would have to pay our medical insurance out of our own pockets for the summer. I would not have been willing to strike if it weren’t for that."

The UH faculty union wants year-round pay and non-teaching credits for community college professors. Advertiser library photo • March 9, 2001

Malahoff called the nine-month pay proposal, "straight-out vindictiveness," which he said arises from the faculty’s opposition of Cayetano, both in the last gubernatorial election and on various issues related to the university system since that time.

"It is really an evil thing," Malahoff said. "It is a pathetic retirement; you could work 40 years and earn only 50 percent of your salary, and they want to reduce it by another 25 percent? And what do they expect us to do, go on welfare for three months out of the year?"

Universities across the country prorate faculty pay over twelve months, he said, and the most marketable faculty members would soon find work at institutions with more traditional systems.

Yogi, in a written statement released by the state on Saturday, did not address the nine-month pay year proposal.

The state’s two-year contract proposal calls for an average pay raise of about 10 percent for community college instructors and an across-the-board raise of six percent for professors on the Manoa, West O‘ahu and Hilo campuses.

Yogi said the proposal for a reduction in the community college teaching load would force the state to hire even more lecturers to maintain present course offerings.

It would cost $5.72 million a year on all campuses to maintain status quo on course offerings, he said.

Hitting the community colleges with increased teaching costs proposed by the union, Yogi said, could force the colleges to eliminate about 1,500 courses, beginning a vicious cycle resulting in a loss of $4 million in tuition revenue. The alternative, Yogi said, could be layoffs of other personnel to make up for the lost revenue.

The union is planning a strike authorization vote at all 10 UH campuses March 19-21.

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