Faculty contract up for vote this week

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Labor peace on the 10 UH campuses through 2009 is at stake this week as ratification votes are held on the proposed University of Hawai'i faculty contract.

Ratification votes are scheduled tomorrow and Wednesday, with results to be announced Thursday. If the contract is rejected, a strike is a possibility.

The 3,148 members of the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly are being asked to vote on an unprecedented six-year contract that offers them a 31 percent increase over that period, at increments of 1, 3, 2, 5, 9 and 11 percent each year through 2009. The contract is retroactive to 2003.

With compounding, the effective increase will be 34.8 percent, which would bring UH faculty members' salaries closer to their peers nationally.

Presently salaries are at the 30th percentile, which means that the salaries at 70 percent of peer institutions are higher.

Negotiators hope that, when complete, these increases will bring the faculty up to the 50th percentile, but some faculty members have pointed out that to do so, other institutions would have to remain at the status quo.

In the past week of informational briefings on the 10 campuses, there was much disagreement and debate over the merits of the proposal.

Some said the contract should have been front-loaded rather than back-loaded and expressed concern about economic conditions four years from now and whether the state and university would be able to pay.

UHPA leaders and bargaining team members repeatedly have assured union members that the contract is firm and that they will see the hefty final raises. And they have said that this is a good offer that will give the university stability and the faculty a major increase in pay.

Faculty salaries currently range from a low of $35,000 to a high of about $200,000. By UHPA calculations, a salary of $60,000 today — a fairly typical amount — would become $80,880 by the end of the contract.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.