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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, January 17, 2010

UH, faculty union reach deal


By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

DETAILS OF CONTRACT

University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly recommends its members approve a tentative contract with UH that includes:

• Length of contract: 6 years, expires on June 30, 2015, with no "evergreen clause."

Temporary pay reduction: 6.7 percent for 18 months, starting Jan. 1 and ending June 30, 2011. Effective July 1, 2011, pay will be returned to Dec. 31, 2009, levels.

• Pay raises: 3 percent hikes effective July 1, 2013, and July 1, 2014.

• Lump sum payments equal to 25 percent of the reduction on Aug. 1, 2012, and Aug. 1, 2013, plus a one-time lump sum payment equal to 50 percent of the reduction payable Aug. 1, 2014.

• Institution of payroll lag starting June 30.

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LABOR DEALS

These are among the key labor agreements or rulings involving the state and its public workers unions:

Sept. 18, 2009: The Lingle administration and the Hawaii State Teachers Association announced a tentative agreement on a two-year contract that includes furloughs to help close the state’s budget deficit. Public-school teachers who work 10-month schedules — the vast majority of the more than 13,000 union teachers — would take 17 furlough days a year while teachers who work year-round would take 21 furlough days a year. The furloughs amount to a 7.9 percent annual pay cut. The deal was later approved by 81 percent of teachers who voted.

Oct. 14, 2009: The Lingle administration and the Hawaii Government Employees Association reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract that called for 18 furlough days this fiscal year and 24 furlough days next fiscal year for most state workers. The furloughs amount to about an 8 percent pay cut. Union members later ratified the agreement, with approval rates ranging from 60 percent to 95 percent in the union’s different bargaining units.

Jan. 15, 2010: The Lingle administration announced that an arbitration panel had ruled that public safety workers represented by the United Public Workers union will receive either pay cuts of up to 5.45 percent or furloughs of up to 24 days. The union covers workers including prison guards, as well as those with Hawaii Health Systems Corp., Hawaii State Hospital and city Emergency Medical Services.

Jan. 16, 2010: The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly and University of Hawaii announce a tentative labor settlement. The university had imposed a 6.7 percent pay cut that took effect Jan. 1.

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A day after its members received their first paychecks reflecting a 6.7 percent pay cut, the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly announced that a tentative contract agreement had been reached with the University of Hawai'i.

Yesterday's surprise announcement followed a protracted dispute between the university and the 3,500-member faculty union that saw a pay cut imposed as of Jan. 1 by the university's president and a request for a temporary restraining order filed by the union.

Last week, the union membership agreed to return to the bargaining table, and asked to have the negotiations monitored by a federal mediator.

Officials on both sides would not reveal terms of the tentative agreement. The union said the details would be disclosed to union members over the weekend and the agreement would be put to a ratification vote by the UHPA membership beginning Thursday.

However, The Advertiser has learned that the agreement calls for temporary pay reductions of 6.7 percent, effective Jan. 1, with base pay returned to Dec. 31, 2009, levels after 18 months, or as of July 1, 2011. By the end of the contract, terms call for three one-time payments that would return to faculty the amount of the pay reduction they sustained during those 18 months, as well as 3 percent pay raises in 2013 and 2014.

The tentative contract does not include furlough days.

The UHPA pact comes in the wake of deals reached by the state's largest public worker unions, the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the Hawaii Government Employees Association. Those agreements include a combination of furloughs and pay cuts to help reduce the state's budget deficit.

"I am pleased that we have reached a tentative settlement with the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly," UH President M.R.C. Greenwood said yesterday in a brief statement. "Until UHPA briefs its members, no details of the tentative settlement will be shared. I want to thank federal mediator Carol Catanzariti and members of the respective negotiating teams for all their hard work in reaching a tentative settlement."

UHPA spokesman Nathan Hokama said an agreement was reached earlier in the week between the university and the union's collective bargaining committee. Yesterday, in a special meeting, the union's full board of directors voted to seek approval of the tentative agreement through a ratification vote by its membership.

Hokama said he did not know the details of the agreement. But he hinted that the apparent turnaround between the union and the administration was in part because the unilaterally imposed faculty salary cuts kicked in Friday, while the Circuit Court had not responded to the union's motion for a restraining order.

"This weekend, they will be issuing the actual tentative agreement so that members can see what it's all about," Hokama said.

He said members would receive the details electronically, although he was unsure when.

"If the members do ratify the agreement, then that will basically be the new contract that replaces the existing one," he said.

The ratification vote will be conducted electronically, starting Thursday at noon and ending at 12:01 p.m. on Jan. 26, Hokama said.

The union's previous contract with the university ran through June 2009.

Gov. Linda Lingle has no authority to order furloughs or layoffs at the university because it is governed by an independent board. Instead, she imposed a budget cut and left it to the university to achieve the savings.

The university took the lead on the negotiations for the state, but Lingle will have to sign off on a new faculty contract.