Hawaii Rocked by Teacher Walkout

A statewide public teachers’ strike shut 180,000 children out of their classrooms Thursday and crippled the University of Hawaii’s 10 campuses in the most far-reaching walkout ever in American education.

“It is the first time, in my knowledge, that an entire state system, from kindergarten to graduate school, has gone on strike simultaneously,” said Bruce S. Cooper, a professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education in New York City who specializes in school labor issues. “It’s massive.”

Both the Hawaii State Teachers Assn., representing nearly 13,000 teachers, and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, with 3,100 faculty members, began walking the picket line at 6 a.m. Thursday, after separate negotiations with the state broke down over pay raises.

“It’s a matter of respect,” said Danielle Lum, spokeswoman for the teachers association. ‘We’re fighting for the future of public education in Hawaii. We’re in this for the long haul.”

The state Department of Education closed the state’s 250 elementary and secondary schools, except for a few charter schools, on Thursday and again today while it assesses the situation. The University of Hawaii system advised its 43,000 students to report to class but said they were free to leave if no instructor appeared within 10 minutes.

“This is a day no one in the state wanted to see, and a day we tried very hard to avoid,” Gov. Ben Cayetano said. “We are prepared to go back [into negotiations] at their call, any time, anywhere.”

Clad in green and white T-shirts with the logo “Teachers Stand Together,” K-12 union members marched outside schools across the state, with broad-brimmed hats and golf umbrellas to ward off the sun.

The strike left some families scrambling.

Many parents relied on extended families to watch their children for the two days that schools will be closed this week. In other cases, parents brought their children with them to work. At the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, children built sandcastles on the beach and did arts and crafts in a convention ballroom while their parents staffed the hotel.

There was plenty of room for other kids at child-care programs in Honolulu on Thursday, but programs were quickly filling up for next week.

All-Day Child Care Is Expanded

“The phones don’t stop ringing,” said Sheryl Winterbottom, office manager at Kamaaina Kids, which normally handles after-school care but has expanded to all-day care at its 18 sites. “People are worried about next week. They are hoping and praying that it will be settled by this weekend.”

But the state administration and the teachers association remained far apart, with a gulf of more than $100 million between the two sides’ final offers. The teachers want a 22% pay raise over four years, a hike they say is necessary to address a teacher shortage. The governor says the state simply can’t afford it, given the competing demands of other public worker unions and government programs. His last offer was close to 14%.

The university faculty union and the administration are closer on money issues, but relations have been strained for years because of UH budget cuts and differences over work conditions. The governor incensed professors by suggesting the faculty be paid just the nine months that school is in session, which would have suspended health and retirement benefits during the summer. The state withdrew that proposal Wednesday, but it wasn’t enough to avert a strike. Another sticking point is that the state is not offering any raises for lecturers, who do not enjoy the same status as professors.

“We teachers are among the most peaceable people on the Earth,” said faculty union President Alex Malahoff. “It takes real effort to make our lives so miserable that we would ever do anything like this. We are mad as hell and we are not going to take it any more.”

Strike authorization votes were overwhelming, with 99% of K-12 union members and 91% of faculty union members voting to walk. Unlike other states, public schools in Hawaii are under the central control of the state, rather than local districts.

At the flagship UH campus in Manoa Valley on Oahu, some classes went on as usual with nonunion instructors, or professors who crossed the line. Kevin Chung, a junior majoring in business, took a statistics exam and said his classmates all showed up. “I have to keep going to class, because I don’t want to fall behind,” he said. Some students, however, joined the picket lines.

On the lower education front, the state plans to reopen schools on a case-by-case basis, giving priority to the youngest students in elementary schools and to graduating seniors.

“We will open schools where we are able to provide reasonable supervision,” said School Supt. Paul LeMahieu. “We don’t make any pretense that a full educational program is ever possible without our teachers in their rightful places. We just hope to get through this quickly and without lasting damage.”

That may be difficult, given the climate surrounding the talks. In dismissing complaints filed by the state against the K-12 teachers’ union this week, the Hawaii Labor Relations Board chastised both the administration and the union. “Both sides act somewhat as though they have taken our schools hostage and are prepared to begin sacrificing hostages unless they achieve their objectives,” board Chairman Brian Nakamura wrote in his ruling.

Public school teachers earn $29,000 to $58,000 annually, averaging $40,000. Cayetano said that puts them 18th in the nation, and his last offer would elevate them to the top 10. But the union says that when the cost of living is factored in, Hawaii teacher salaries are the lowest in the country.

“My husband suffered a stroke seven years ago, and he brings in more than I do, between Social Security and disability,” said Nancy Teruya, a 16-year veteran teacher on the picket line at Roosevelt High School in Honolulu. “Many of our teachers have to take second jobs.”

Strike’s Effects May Spread in State

The walkout comes at a delicate time for Hawaii, which is now facing uncertain economic prospects like the rest of the nation. The state’s economy bounced back in 1998 from a lingering economic downturn and enjoyed a record year for tourism in 2000.

The teachers’ union has no strike fund, and members will not draw paychecks while on the picket line. Other workplaces across the state may be affected as well, as parents scramble for child care. The K-12 union last went on strike in 1973 and narrowly averted another strike in 1997.

“The public generally supports strikes for about their first four or five days,” said Cooper, the Fordham professor who studies school strikes. “Then they begin to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got to go to work and I have nobody to keep my kids.’ If it drags on, there will be rising pressure from the public on the teachers to settle.”