Hawaii’s unionized teachers appear to have given support to the terms of a contract they previously voted down, which could be read as a sign of progress toward finally resolving a labor standoff that has festered for far too long.
It could be. Or it could become the occasion for more posturing.
Wil Okabe, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, has signaled that the ball has landed in the court of Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
Despite the governor’s correct assertion that the same contract was rejected in January and is no longer valid, Okabe wrote to Abercrombie that "just as we asked teachers to reconsider their position, we now ask you to reconsider yours."
That is a false analogy. HSTA members are certainly free to weigh in through a balloting at any time, but in making his assertion, Abercrombie was not simply taking a "position" on accepting the vote. It’s no longer a legally binding contract, period.
There is no other reasonable course of action other than the one the governor has identified: coming back to the bargaining table with a new proposal, presumably one modeled on the terms of the last proposal.
The union announced this week that the membership voted 2-to-1 in favor of the agreement. However, although the HSTA has about 12,500 members, its leadership would not disclose how many votes were cast.
How could Abercrombie, or anyone else, take this balloting as anything more serious or official than a straw poll?
At issue in the negotiating over the six-year contract proposal is, in part, a crucial agreement over a new performance evaluation system.
The 5 percent wage reductions would persist through June 30, 2013, and then a new salary schedule that recognizes teachers’ length of service would take effect.
The accord also would make teachers eligible for 1 percent raises annually for those rated "effective" or "highly effective."
It’s important that both parties recognize that there is no more time to lose in settling the dispute. The evaluation question is especially important because a $75 million Race to the Top grant hinges partly on the state moving to a system that takes student academic growth into account.
Along these lines, Okabe wrote to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to underscore the union’s informational outreach to its members so that they could "reach the right conclusion."
But although Duncan probably appreciated the courtesy of being thanked for his "patience and clarity," he surely can see, through all the hearts and flowers, that the vote is substantively meaningless.
The facts that the turnout figures are being kept secret and voting was done by phone and electronically doesn’t enhance the credibility of the exercise.
Neither do the statements by members, some of whom said they boycotted the vote because representations about its significance were unclear at best.
The protests came from members uninspired to participate in a polling that the state administration considered invalid, and from others leery of union statements that a "no" vote would be considered a strike authorization.
"It was moot," Kalani High School art teacher John Nippolt told the Star-Advertiser. "There was nothing on the table."
He’s entirely right, of course.
Now the right thing to do is for the HSTA to put something on the table. The endless back-and-forth, which also included 10 months of hearings before the Hawaii Labor Relations Board, has become tiresome beyond endurance.
It’s time to bring order to this whole mess.
