When teachers take a second vote this month on a proposed contract they overwhelmingly rejected in January, they will also be asked whether to authorize a strike.
Hawaii State Teachers Association leaders say the strike authorization question was included to give teachers a choice — and to lay out what some think are the only options left for a union embroiled in a lengthy labor dispute with the state.
HSTA President Wil Okabe did not comment on the strike authorization vote Monday, saying in an email that many teachers went into the January vote feeling they had inadequate information, while some members "did spend time reviewing the documents … and made the best possible decision based on the information given at the time."
If teachers vote to authorize a strike, it doesn’t necessarily mean one is imminent.
But having the question on the ballot could spur some strike-wary teachers to accept the offer that union members rejected 2-to-1 in January.
Several teachers interviewed Monday said they would not support a strike, especially given the tough economic times.
"I don’t think anyone wants a strike," said Alan Isbell, a fourth-grade teacher at Wailuku Elementary.
Isbell said given the bleak options before teachers, voting for the proposal that was rejected in January is the best way forward.
Negotiations with the state appear to be headed nowhere, he said.
"It’s not going to get any better" than the January deal, said Isbell, who supported the contract offer in the first round of voting.
Ray Dela Cruz, a special-education teacher at Kaimuki High, said he could not afford a strike and would not support one.
But he is also against the contract offer that teachers are being asked to vote on again.
"It’s almost an insult to our intelligence," he said of the new vote. "We already did this."
The union announced last week it would take another vote on the rejected contract, a decision Okabe said was driven by the "urgency to preserve" the state’s $75 million Race to the Top federal education reform grant.
The proposed six-year contract includes a move to a controversial performance management system for teachers in the 2013-14 school year.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie has said the rejected contract has no "legal standing," however, and must be renegotiated.
No talks between the union and state are scheduled, and the union canceled a bargaining session scheduled for Monday.
Instead, HSTA held the first of 41 informational meetings statewide on the proposed contract. Through the next eight days, meetings to give teachers more information on the contract and to hear concerns will be conducted in each school complex area.
Shannon Kaaa, a special-education preschool teacher at Fern Elementary and a member of HSTA’s board of directors, said she thinks that given another chance — and a look at the other choices — teachers will approve the January deal.
She said there is precedent in public employee negotiations for a rejected contract to be reconsidered. Kaaa said she believes the governor should give teachers another chance.
"I’m hoping if the teachers vote yes, the governor will honor this," she said.
Kaaa also said the strike authorization vote was included on the ballot to give teachers another option. "If the teachers can’t say yes to this (the contract proposal), then what is it we’re going to do?" she said.
Donalyn Dela Cruz, Abercrombie’s spokeswoman, declined comment on the strike authorization vote.
Teachers last went on strike in 2001, walking picket lines for 20 days before an agreement was reached.
Laverne Moore, a special-education teacher at McKinley High who has long been active in the union, said it is important for teachers to weigh in on whether a strike is appropriate.
"It’s a right that we have," she said.
But Moore doesn’t believe teachers will support a strike, and said she thinks those opposing the contract today are a "vocal minority."
"This is a darn good contract," she said.
Under the proposal, teachers, like other public workers, would continue to take 5 percent wage reductions through June 30, 2013, before moving to a new salary schedule that recognizes their years of service.
The Department of Education also would move to a revised teacher evaluation system that takes into account student academic growth. Teachers rated "effective" or "highly effective" would be eligible for 1 percent "step" raises annually.
Teachers have been working under a contract the state imposed since July when negotiations fell apart.
The labor dispute contributed to the U.S. Department of Education’s decision in December to place Hawaii’s Race to the Top grant on high-risk status. Last week the federal officials extended that status for at least five more months, saying the preliminary nature of projects under way and the lack of "conditions for reform" meant Hawaii had not yet demonstrated substantial progress on Race efforts.
Under the competitive grant aimed at boosting student achievement, Hawaii pledged to institute revised teacher evaluations that include multiple measures of student performance and use those evaluations in high-stakes decisions such as compensation and tenure.
