Strike threats a double whammy

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Staff Writer

If Hawai'i's schoolteachers and university faculty strike simultaneously on April 5, it will be the first time in American history that union workers have shut down an entire state system of public education.

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UH keeping everyone posted The University of Hawai'i administration is providing information for students and employees in the event of a strike. A hot line is set up for O'ahu residents at 956-4560, and for Neighbor Island and Mainland callers at 1-866-898-5161. A Web site has also been set up for students, faculty, staff, and the public. UH officials will mail a letter to all students tomorrow informing them that if there is a strike, campuses will be open and operating as fully as possible. Students are on spring break this week. Classes resume April 2. — Scott Ishikawa

Both unions have reached an impasse with the state over issues of pay, benefits and workload. UHPA sent a strike notice to the state yesterday, and the teachers union also targeted a strike date of April 5 unless a settlement is reached before then.

"I think this really does have the potential to bring the state to its knees," said Bruce Carlson, a Fordham University professor of policy and education who has studied teacher unions in 15 countries and recently wrote a book on school strikes.

"It could be quite messy. The potential for shutting down the education system is very extensive. This is really a serious situation."

Like industrywide tie-up

The situation in Hawai'i would be akin to union strikes in Europe, where workers in entire industries are in one bargaining unit, and strikes can shut down whole systems of trucking, education or transportation, Carlson said.

Hawai'i is also unique because one public school system, rather than independent districts, covers the entire state, said Thomas Hyclak, a professor of economics at Lehigh University. Most states have a patchwork of dozens or hundreds of local school districts. Union strikes have a limited, local impact. "I'm not aware of any other states where they have the same kind of concentration of membership under such few unions," Hyclak said.

While the sheer size of the unions — nearly 13,000 teachers in HSTA and 3,100 faculty members in UHPA — lends weight to their strike threat and gives them bargaining power, it also means that a work stoppage had better be short. After a few days on strike, public support usually turns against unions, Hyclak and Carlson said.

"It has an effect on everybody," Hyclak said. "Public support will turn against the union after a time because of the inconvenience to families. You realize the kids don't have anything to do. They're unsupervised and running around. People start to blame the teachers because they are the ones that initiated the strike."

Students, parents worry

A walkout by the public school teachers would leave thousands of parents scrambling for child care.

The Department of Education reports that it has been deluged with questions from parents and students about what a strike will mean for them. In fact, a drawn-out strike threatens to disrupt all end-of-year activities, including graduation ceremonies, proms, extracurricular events and sports competitions.

A new Hawai'i-based standards test that was to be taken by students in April already is in doubt. The department has frozen the distribution of testing materials till the matter is resolved.

The strike could have legal ramifications as well. Attorneys representing special-education students already have said they will ask a federal judge to intervene if teachers walk. They say any strike would affect the care of special-needs children and derail state efforts to comply with the Felix consent decree, which has imposed a December deadline for improved services.

At the University of Hawai'i, the strike could mean the disruption of research projects worth millions of dollars and the cancellation of most classes. Students who have plans for graduation, summer school, graduate school or summer jobs would also thrown into uncertainty if a strike lasts more than a few days.

Setback for research

The threat of a strike could have a negative effect on grants and training projects worth $180 million a year. While many professors would be able to continue their academic research and writing from home, scientists rely on their laboratories.

Carl Vogel, director of the Cancer Research Center, said he can't imagine what would happen to many of their multiyear research projects during a strike.

"If the faculty members at the Cancer Center would indeed strike, it would be chaos," Vogel said. "We have cells that grow and liquid nitrogen freezers that have to be monitored, and experiments that are going on."

Alan Teramura, senior vice president for research at Manoa, said technicians, graduate students and others could likely watch over research projects and animals or plants in labs during a short strike.

"In the event of a longer-term strike, there are other problems that may arise, particularly in projects that are time-sensitive," Teramura said.

Some classes to continue

Students will also be faced with campuses that will be only partially operational. Some classes would continue through a strike, though.

UHPA includes 3,188 people who could legally strike — 2,959 faculty and 229 lecturers. But 723 non-UHPA faculty would be required to continue teaching.

In the UH system, 189 faculty and 534 lecturers who teach less than half-time are excluded from the UHPA bargaining unit.

The university plans to keep dorms, cafeterias, libraries and other buildings open during a strike, said UH spokesman Jim Manke.

Commencement exercises are scheduled for May 13, and they can go on despite a strike because commencement is a ceremony that only represents the conferring of degrees, Manke said. Many out-of-town family members have made travel arrangements to attend.

Barry Raleigh, dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology, said he worries most about other issues.

"I am concerned about what would happen to faculty morale if there was a prolonged strike," Raleigh said. "We are recruiting several people right now, and I don't want to try to recruit in a middle of a strike. This is not the kind of thing that makes people want to rush out to the University of Hawai'i."

A strike could also affect university enrollment. UH student Emily Loda said she has already decided to transfer back to the Mainland after this semester because of higher tuition and the impending strike.

"I don't think this state puts enough emphasis on education and its faculty," said the 21-year-old graphic design and communications major from Reno, Nev. "I can't risk losing my credits over this thing; that's why I'm headed back."

Staff writers Alice Keesing and Scott Ishikawa contributed to this report.