Teachers rally for health benefits

By Alice Keesing and David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writers

The Board of Education last night indicated that it disagrees with Gov. Ben Cayetano's efforts to cut health benefits to striking teachers, but stopped short of actively challenging his actions.

Board members made their decision after hundreds of striking teachers turned up in force to challenge them to defy the governor and preserve their health benefits.

Cayetano has said Hawai'i's 12,000 striking teachers are on "unauthorized leave of absence" and therefore are not eligible for health benefits.

State budget and finance director Neil Miyahira has said the state will not pay its contributions to the Hawaii Public Employees Health Fund for those on strike.

"As a result, striking employees' enrollments in health and life insurance benefit plans will be terminated," he wrote in a letter to the member benefits corporation.

The Hawai'i State Teachers Association and the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly are seeking court injunctions to thwart that action.

Yesterday a circuit court judge directed the state not to cut off any striker's benefits before April 19, so the judge would have time to consider the unions' requests.

After weeks of debate, the board weighed in on the issue last night, saying it believes Hawai'i's teachers are on a legal strike and are therefore on "authorized leave of absence."

The board also voted that teachers' health benefits should not be curtailed.

Some teachers who rallied outside the meeting had expected the board to say it would cover the costs, but chairman Herb Watanabe said the board cannot legally do that.

Instead, it again punted the decision back to the governor and the Department of Budget and Finance, which controls the health plan money.

DOE will notify teachers that they can enroll in the COBRA health plan if their benefits are withheld.

The HSTA has told the 9,100 teachers in its health plan that it will cover them during the strike. However, the 1,900 teachers in the state-run health plan have no such guarantees.

Meanwhile, HSTA Executive Director Joan Husted said the union expects to file another lawsuit against the state to ensure teachers are paid for the three days they have already worked this month.

Vernon Yu, who represents the HSTA, and Anthony Gill, who represents UHPA, said yesterday that they were told the next paychecks to striking members of the unions won't contain pay for April 2ö4.

The next pay day for UHPA members is April 15, while HSTA members are scheduled to be paid April 20.

But Wayne Kimura, deputy director of the state Department of Budget and Finance, said the striking members should be paid on time for the days worked unless there is a glitch in providing the necessary information.

"The governor wants to pay them for the days they worked," Kimura said.

As of late yesterday, UH appeared on track in providing the information to the Department of Accounting and General Services to pay UHPA members as scheduled on April 15, Kimura said.

For HSTA members to get paid on time, the Department of Education must provide the information by tomorrow, Kimura said.

The governor's spokeswoman, Kim Murakawa, said the governor has asked the payroll office to get checks to the striking workers as soon as possible.

In other developments:

• There were no talks yesterday between the state and the two striking education unions. The two unions today are expected to ask the state get back to the table.
• All public schools remain closed today, with the exception of Ni'ihau.
• Teacher participation in the strike remains at 99 percent, with 134 teachers crossing the picket lines yesterday.
• University faculty continued to honor the picket lines with little change in the volume of faculty turnout.
• The Hawai'i Labor Relations Board declared 29 more University of Hawai'i faculty members as essential workers, bringing the total to 188 people who are prohibited from striking because they work with medical patients.