The state rebuffed attempts by the unions to work out details before announcing the plan
Posted: August 5, 2021
The Hawaii State Teachers Association joined five other Hawaii public employee unions Thursday — the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association (HFFA), Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA), the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO), the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly (UHPA), and the United Public Workers (UPW) — in releasing the following joint statement:
We strongly encourage COVID-19 vaccinations as part of our united effort to beat the pandemic and protect our community’s health. The health and well-being of our public employees, who have been essential during this pandemic, remain our top priority while we continue to keep vital government operations running every day.
The public-sector unions reached out to the governor’s office earlier this week to initiate discussions about the vaccine mandate, but our request was denied. We will continue to fight for open discussions about these important decisions that affect public employees, our government operations, and our community.
The emergency proclamation will impact our members’ working conditions and the employer must bargain those impacts with the appropriate collective bargaining units. Details on how tests will be administered, how results will be kept confidential, and how the state will fund this mandate will need to be negotiated with the state and we look forward to having those discussions right away.
The collective bargaining process is premised on the foundation that a harmonious and cooperative relationship between government and its employees will better protect and serve the public by assuring the effective and orderly operations of government. There is no greater time in our history and existence that this process be recognized and honored.
We have also submitted to the governor a demand for impact bargaining and hope to quickly resolve implementation issues through that process. We stand ready and willing to immediately meet to negotiate these impacts with the employer.
In a joint union news conference hosted by HSTA Thursday afternoon, HGEA Executive Director Randy Perreira said, “The way that the governor is imposing it, forcing employees, ‘If you want to keep your job, you have to be tested at your own expense.’ It’s very problematic and somewhat troubling to see how employee rights are being trampled, and at the expense of trying to get something done where we’re willing to work together.
“There’s really been no communication with us. The communication has been at us,” Perreira added.
Liz Ho, UPW administrator, said, “We’ve been reaching out to the employer to have discussions about this, but as Randy had said earlier, we’ve seen nothing. Nothing has been sent over to the unions. No one has reached out to us to discuss any of this with us.”
Perreira also took issue with the proclamation’s short timeline. “You can have somebody go tomorrow to get the first phase of the Pfizer [vaccine], and he or she will not be able to complete their vaccination process and will be subjected to testing at their own expense, because Aug. 16 is going to come around faster than the second shot,” he said.