After the sore feet come hard feelings
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By Yasmin Anwar
Advertiser staff writer
With the teachers' strike looking like it's nearly over, instructors like Mary Ellen Miller of Jefferson Elementary in Waikiki are starting to think beyond sun, sweat and sore feet to more important questions:
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
How do they catch up on all the missed work? And how do they forgive those co-workers who did not stand in solidarity with them, and those politicians who balked at their demands?
Gov. Ben Cayetano leaves the State Capitol after an afternoon of looking into yesterday's negotiations with the teachers' union.
"Hopefully I'll forgive because I've got to go back into the classroom and teach," said Miller, a first-grade teacher who was a regular on Jefferson's picket line on Kapahulu Avenue across from the Honolulu Zoo.
Like many others who started walking the picket lines on April 5, Miller said the solidarity with colleagues is one thing she'll miss.
"I'll miss the camaraderie, but not the circumstances that led to the camaraderie," she said.
Those who recall the aftermath of the 1973 strike by Hawai'i teachers say putting the pieces back together after a statewide walkout is easier said than done, as those who joined the revolt return to work and face those who broke ranks with them.
"The people who scabbed were always thought of as scabs," said Carolyn Mossman, a teacher at Princess Ka'iulani Elementary and representative for the Honolulu chapter of the Hawaii State Teachers Association.
The vast majority of Hawai'i's public school teachers hit the picket lines after walking off the job 17 days ago after two years without a contract and months of contentious negotiations with the state.
The HSTA has contended that teacher salaries, which range from $29,000 to $58,000 a year, have not kept up with the high cost of living in Hawai'i and that higher pay is needed to attract and retain good teachers, particularly now, when there is a shortage of teachers nationwide and competition for them is fierce.
Gov. Ben Cayetano, maintaining that the state could not afford to pay the more than $200 million in raises that the union initially asked for, suggested the HSTA lower its expectations.
The strike has shut down classes at more than 250 campuses and idled 183,000 students statewide. According to union estimates, 130 teachers a day crossed picket lines, barely 1 percent of its more than 12,000 members.
Meanwhile, teachers who once were strangers to one another have bonded over their picket line patrols.
At Kaimuki High, donations poured in during the picket line operating hours of 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
A retired ironworker dropped off a $100 bill. The school's head of security drove around in a golf cart and distributed Popsicles. To amuse themselves, pickets marched in varying configurations and competed over who could attract the most car honks in 10 minutes.
Holly Soria, the picket captain and Spanish teacher, said that between worrying about how bargaining talks were progressing, they actually had fun.
"We did what teachers do, make the best it," Soria said.
