Public deserves to know why HSTA quit talks

Will this ever end?

In August, the Hawaii public school teachers’ union accepted Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s proposal to rely on federal mediation to resolve a labor dispute that had dragged on since January, when the union rejected the state’s contract offer.

On Thursday, Abercrombie announced that the Hawaii State Teachers Association had walked away from the table, for reasons not entirely clear.

"In the coming weeks, HSTA will provide our teachers and the public a more detailed accounting of what led up to the breakdown in bargaining with the governor," Okabe told the Star-Advertiser.

That mediation apparently failed is bad enough. IThat it could take weeks to learn why just adds insult to injury.

At this point, it would be understandable if teachers despair of resolving this dispute before June 30, when the contract imposed on them runs out.

In July 2011, Abercrombie unilaterally implemented a "last, best and final" contract offer for teachers, including 5 percent wage reductions and higher health insurance premiums.

Union members rejected the proposal in January. When that failed to nudge the governor, in May nearly two-thirds of the members voted by phone or online to accept the proposal. However, Abercrombie explained correctly that the teachers’ acceptance was legally invalid because of the earlier rejection.

Abercrombie proposed in August that the dispute be put before the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, noted for its effectiveness, at no charge, in guiding negotiators through deadlocks to settlement.

The mediators have no authority to impose settlements, and neither side is at risk, so the union’s agreement to engage in the negotiations was not surprising. What’s surprising is that mediation collapsed.

HSTA accused the governor of violating ground rules by issuing a statement to the news media by himself and not jointly with the union. He told Hawaii News Now that ground rules for the mediation included provisos that mediation would be limited to 10 days and "that no statements would be made to the media, unless such statements were made jointly." He said the state had refused to sign onto a "joint statement" written by the union that the mediation sessions concluded Tuesday "with the parties unsuccessful in reaching an accord."

All of these statements, whether proper or not, shared one characteristic — they did not explain why mediation failed. The public is entitled to know that much, and both parties should provide this information sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, the union said that it had asked the state Supreme Court to order the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to issue a decision on its complaint that the state had violated its members’ rights by having taken a "take it or leave it" bargaining posture.

Given the length of time this dispute has chewed up already, that sounds like a good idea. This standstill has taken far too long.