Union postpones contract voting for 2 of its units

Contract ratification meetings for members of two units of the Hawaii Government Employees Association were suspended by the union Thursday, a development that will delay indefinitely any agreement or raises for about 14,400 state, city and county workers.

The ratification process was interrupted after HGEA learned Hawaii State Teachers Association negotiators had won larger across-the-board raises and a larger bonus than HGEA had negotiated for two of its units, according to a statement HGEA distributed to its members.

"We assure you that we will fight for what is right and what is fair," HGEA said in the statement to its members. HGEA is the largest union in the state, and the statement said the union plans to enter into arbitration to resolve the contract dispute.

The HGEA posted a public notice on its website Thursday morning telling members of Unit 3, which includes white-collar government workers, and Unit 4 white-collar supervisors that they should not go to ratification sites as originally planned.

Contract ratification voting for members of HGEA’s Unit 2, which includes about 815 blue-collar supervisors, continued yesterday at various polling sites.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association, which represents 13,500 public school teachers, announced late Wednesday it had reached an agreement with the state to increase salary and benefits for the remaining two years of the teachers’ current contract.

The existing teachers’ contract restored a 5 percent pay cut made in 2009 and included annual salary boosts of at least 3 percent through a combination of across-the-board increases and pay grade step-ups in alternating years.

The new deal for the teachers announced Wednesday sweetens that package by offering a one-time $2,000 lump sum payment for full-time teachers and a $1,000 payment for part-time teachers.

The new agreement would also amend the teacher salary schedule on the last day of the teachers’ contract on June 30, 2017, to reflect an across-the-board increase of 1.8 percent.

The HSTA negotiated those changes under a "reopener clause" that allowed the teachers union to seek additional pay and benefits after completing a salary study to help inform discussions.

According to the statement from HGEA to its members, HGEA leadership learned Wednesday night that "the employers have offered a greater bonus and higher across-the-board increase to Hawaii State Teachers Association for their contract re-opener than they were willing to offer Units 3 and 4."

"In negotiations we specifically attempted to get the employer to increase both the across-the-board and bonus for the second year of the contract but the employers refused," according to the HGEA statement to its membership.

"Because of this development, HGEA Executive Director Randy Perreira, who is the union’s chief negotiator, has decided to suspend all ratification voting and will notify the employers that we do not agree with their offer," the statement to union members said. "HGEA instead will petition the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to proceed to arbitration for the two bargaining units."

A spokeswoman for HGEA would say only that "our negotiating teams are meeting tomorrow to discuss the next step."

Unit 3 and Unit 4 members were originally being asked this week to approve an two-year agreement that would award them either a step movement into a higher pay grade or a $1,500 lump-sum payment on July 1, and another lump-sum payment of $600 for all employees the following year.

The proposal would also have increased the share of health insurance premiums paid by the state and counties each year of the contract; would continue step movements to higher pay grades in the second year of the contract; and would provide for a 1.6 percent across-the-board pay increase in 2016.

Sources have said the package offered to HGEA members would have worked out to the equivalent of a 4 percent pay increase each year of the two-year agreement.

The public worker unions have been trying to wrap up negotiations in time for the state Legislature to fund the new agreements, but it is unclear whether that will be possible for Units 3 and 4 this year. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn May 7.