EDITORIAL
UH faculty contract a welcome prospect

It is with a profound sense of relief that we greet the promise of six years of labor peace at the University of Hawai'i.

Three years ago, the 10-campus UH system endured a 13-day strike — the only time in U.S. history, the union says, that a strike shut down a state university system.

A second such strike would have dealt a horrible setback to efforts to make the university nationally more competitive and to harness it as a more effective engine of statewide economic growth.

This promise of labor peace is contingent, of course, on ratification of the agreement reached between the state and the University of Hawai'i faculty union on Thursday.

We wouldn't be surprised to hear some dissension in the ranks of the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly, but we would be surprised if members ultimately rejected the recommendation of their leadership to accept this deal.

The unusual nature of the deal seems to be the ingredient that made it acceptable to negotiators from both sides. It's a 31-percent pay raise worth $162.8 million over six years, which should appeal to faculty members. But because it's somewhat back-loaded and because UH will help the state pay for the larger raises in the last three years, it seems affordable to the state.

We suggest it's premature, however, to advertise this settlement as a huge change in how UH faculty rank, pay-wise, with their Mainland peers. It appears to bring them up to average over the life of the contract, but average is a moving target that may again be out of reach in six years.

The UH settlement comes as the state awaits word tomorrow of a binding settlement by an independent arbitration panel on pay issues for 23,000 state and county white-collar workers in the Hawai'i Government Employees Association.

We disagree with HGEA deputy executive director Randy Perreira that the state is "hypocritical" in suggesting it would be devastated by a high-end settlement for his union, when it's being so generous with UHPA.

Our wish is that lawmakers will soon make arbitrators consider the effect of other settlements on the ability of the state and counties to afford pay raises they're considering. But even if they don't, the HGEA contract being arbitrated is only for two years; the bulk of the UHPA raises falls in years after that.