Governor says teacher strike vote no surprise

By Alice Keesing and Rod Ohira
Advertiser Education Writer

Gov. Ben Cayetano said today he wouldn’t yield to the threat of an April 5 walkout authorized by Hawai‘i’s public school teachers last night, and reaffirmed his position that the state has no room to budge.

“I expected the heavy strike vote, because there has been little discussion by the HSTA leaders about the state’s offer,” Cayetano said in a statement released by his office. “HSTA spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in raising the expectations of its members.

“Some teachers are demanding we raise taxes,” he added. “Emotion rather than reason is ruling.”

The state is proposing to raise the starting pay of teachers from $29,204 to $35,070, and to boost the top-end scale by $6,000, to $64,202, which the governor says will address concerns about recruitment and retention and leave enough money for the state to buy textbooks and improve facilities.

With its strike vote last night, the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association set the stage for a showdown. Hundreds of teachers were out waving signs today to gain support.

Once the votes were counted, the union had the support of 99 percent of the nearly 11,000 teachers who turned out.

Linda Tavares carried her anger with her when she cast her "yes" vote last night — one of 10,875 ballots by Hawai'i's public school teachers that resoundingly authorized a strike.

Students at Royal School, Teisy Tatashy, 10 and Jayleen Ichokwan, 11, expressed concern about the threat of a teachers' strike as they waited at the school's Queen Emma St. gate for rides or the bus to get home. Bruce Asato • The The Honolulu Advertiser

"We're angry that the governor and others are treating us like second-class citizens, and we probably taught them," Tavares said.

The vote sends a strong message to the governor that teachers are serious about getting a good contract, said Hawai'i State Teachers Association President Karen Ginoza.

And like Tavares, many of Hawai'i's teachers are angry, said union executive director Joan Husted.

"This is very serious," Husted said as teachers gathered at the Neal Blaisdell Center last night to cast their votes. "This is not shibai. This is not a show. These teachers in this room, they're fighting for what they believe in and they will put their salaries on the line to ensure the classrooms are filled with qualified teachers, which is more, I think, than state officials are doing."

Contract negotiations have been deadlocked since November, with the union calling for more pay to tackle a teacher shortage crisis and the state maintaining there is not enough money to give the union all it wants. Teachers contend that they're underpaid; Gov. Ben Cayetano counters that any raise should be tied to improved performance.

The war of words escalated yesterday with the state's full-page newspaper advertisements.

In "An Open Letter to the People of Hawai'i," Cayetano reaffirmed education as his top priority. If the state gives the union the 22 percent it is requesting, there will not be enough left for textbooks, computers or school repairs, he said, and the Department of Education's budget may have to be cut.

Cayetano also countered the union's complaint that Hawai'i's teachers are the lowest paid in the nation. He cited a national source that puts Hawai'i's teachers as the 18th highest paid. However, other national comparisons place Hawai'i last when cost of living is factored in.

"Our proposal calls for 40 percent of our teachers to receive increases of between 11 and 20 percent," Cayetano told The Advertiser last night. "With new incomes ranging from $35,070 to $64,202, Hawai'i teachers will be the 11th highest paid in the nation. It's a good offer."

With a new round of contract talks beginning this summer, Cayetano said a strike would inflict unnecessary hardship on Hawai'i's schoolchildren.

While state Republicans questioned yesterday's $10,000 advertisement, state chief negotiator Davis Yogi said "this was the only way we could get the information out" about the state's position. But the ad angered teachers even more.

"Teachers are upset when they see their tax dollars, along with everyone else's, being used to attack them," Husted said. "They say they've got no money for a raise, but they've got money for an ad."

Union officials also said the advertisement was misleading. Because the offer freezes the top five levels of the salary schedule, the maximum pay a teacher could earn would eventually revert back to about $52,000, which is less than top-level teachers currently earn, Ginoza said.

"It's not an incentive for teachers to stay in the job," she said.

Hawai'i's teachers have been working without a contract since January 1999 and have not received a raise since 1997.

Despite last night's definitive step toward a strike, Husted said the union intends to keep talking with the state to try to find a solution.

Yogi said he's waiting for the union's counteroffer.

"We have a very fair wage package on the table, but their position is very firm," he said. "They haven't moved since Oct. 12, 2000."

The two sides are at least $100 million apart in their proposals, he said.

Hawai'i schoolteachers enter the Neal Blaisdell Center to listen to speakers and then enter their votes. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We appear to be engaging in brinkmanship," he said. "I'm always anxious when people go stand at the edge of cliffs. It's not good, but it's apparently the way we do things."

LeMahieu said he believes there is a need for better teacher pay so Hawai'i can attract and retain more teachers. But he said he also understands the governor has to balance the budget.

"My concern is for the relationships and the long term impacts of a strike," LeMahieu said. "People here still speak with unfortunately painful memories of 1973 — it lingers. There will be a day on the other side of this strike, and on that day people are going to have to work together again.

"Parents will have to work with teachers on educating children. Administrators will have to work with teachers on improving the school system and teachers will have to work with other teachers as colleagues. And unfortunately some of the lingering effects make that very difficult."

Parents and students around the state also are watching anxiously as a strike looms.

Brenda Reichel-Keanu is worried what will happen to services for her 14-year-old son, who is both learning- and emotionally disabled.

"My son's service providers already have told me that if the teachers go on strike, they will not cross the picket line," she said. Reichel-Keanu, who runs her own business, said that places her in the difficult situation of finding adequate care for her son.

And graduation plans are up in the air for thousands of high school seniors as they wait to see whether their teachers will walk off the job.

Roosevelt High senior Catherine Uyeda said all the students are worried about what might happen to their graduation. Most of her friends already have bought their dresses for a prom that they're now not sure what will happen.

"I'm really hoping I don't miss my prom," Uyeda said. "It's your last event as a senior with all your friends."

But Uyeda said her teachers have her full support. She and other students are planning to wave signs with them this afternoon.

"I'm personally more concerned about them because we know they work hard," Uyeda said. "They do a lot more than they need to, and we think they deserve a raise."

For Tavares, the anger she felt as she cast her vote last night was also tempered with pain and a passion to fight for education.

"All of us are in pain knowing we are going to leave these children and they're not going to understand and their parents are not going to understand that we're doing it for the future of Hawai'i," said Tavares, a fourth-grade teacher at Wahiawa's Solomon Elementary who has been teaching in the state since 1965.

"We all feel that our profession is not holding up well," Tavares said. "The young are not coming in, and if they do, they leave within five years."

Tavares called over a fellow teacher from the crowd in the Neal Blaisdell Center.

"This young guy, he's leaving the profession," she said.

Chad Nacapuy nodded.

"This is my first full year of teaching, but I'm leaving the system, at least for now," he said. "The basic thing is the pay. I have a twin brother in Seattle with a house and BMW. I earn $18,000 after taxes, and I can't move out of my parents' house because of what I'm getting paid."