Repeating the Past

Unfortunately, the halcyon days of cooperation and common goals with the DOE and the Legislature were not destined to continue. By 1994, the DOE was instituting some of the most regressive education policies since the early 1970s.

In two successive bargaining sessions, the employer presented bargaining packages that would eradicate much of the headway teachers made in recent years.

Additionally, the Statewide budget deficit had legislators looking at taking away some hard-earned benefits.

It all came to a head on April 5, 2001.

After two years of bargaining a new contract, the employer continued to stonewall. Their package included regressive measures and virtually no pay increases. It was clearly a matter of respect: teachers wanted it, the employer didn’t want to give it.

Having gone through similar bargaining just four years prior, teachers were unwilling to be complacent. A strike vote showed that 98% of Hawaii’s public school teachers would strike if it came to it. And it did.

Despite the Association’s best efforts to settle the contract, the employer forced the teachers out on strike for the second time in its history. Schools closed as more than 99% of teachers walked the picket lines day in and day out.

The 21-day strike, the longest strike ever in Hawaii, was an eye-opening experience for many teachers. The public, clearly siding with the teachers, opened their arms and took care of the teachers. Parents, students, and passersby brought food to striking teachers; Cars honked their support; and the media reports were of the courage shown daily by strikers.

In the end, teachers emerged victorious. The average teacher received more than 16% in pay raises, and improvements in working conditions that treated teachers like professionals rather than tall children.

But the celebration was to be short-lived. The employer would soon begin to renege on agreements, and the matter would be taken to the Hawaii Labor Relations Board. At issue was whether teachers with advanced degrees would receive the bargained differential for one or two years.

HLRB sided with the Association: teachers would receive the agreed-upon differential for one year, and the second year amount would be renegotiated. A good plan until the Department of Education spent the monies designated for the renegotiation.


Conclusion

HSTA members have seen it all. They've been treated like inconsequential pawns in a high stakes game of political power and government funding - and fought back to gain their voice and assert their identity and their own power.
They've been introduced to collective action - and seen it work virtual miracles in situations where the efforts of one individual would have gone unheeded. They've seen clearly what needed to be done to improve public education in Hawaii - and they've had the organization and will to do something about it. They've fought hard - and they've been winners.

Now, we cannot simply be satisfied that teachers, through HSTA, have been front-line soldiers in the war against ignorance, indifference and prejudice. We cannot become too comfortable in the knowledge that HSTA has been responsibly aggressive in the pursuit of high standards for education and the profession. We cannot become complacent because HSTA teachers have matured and grown professionally as an Association. The fact is, while we have accomplished a great deal so far, neither satisfaction, comfort nor complacency will carry us on to face the challenges of the future.

For HSTA it is about more than getting a better deal for teachers – it’s about putting teachers in the driver's seat, where they would have a chance to make education better.