Teachers at Campbell High School will work only the hours their contract requires Thursday to protest the lack of progress in getting an agreement.
Most of Campbell’s 180 teachers will participate, and teachers from other schools have expressed interest in similar protests, said Corey Rosenlee, a Campbell High social studies teacher.
Rosenlee said the protest is meant to show how much unpaid time teachers give to students and schools every day.
"Working to the rule," he said, means that outside of their contracted work hours, teachers will not oversee extracurricular clubs for which they are not paid, offer tutoring, work on lesson plans, reach out to parents or perform a myriad of other activities they do for free.
Instead, before and after school Thursday, teachers will be holding signs outside of Campbell High to call for an end to a labor dispute that began in July 2011.
He said there could more protests in coming weeks.
"The governor has imposed a contract, and what we’re trying to say is, if you can impose a contract without our consent, then what we’re going to do is work to that contract," he said.
He said teachers will start work promptly at 8 a.m. and leave at 3 p.m.
April Hosino, who teaches biology and medical biotechnology at Campbell, said she hopes the protest will make the public more aware of the lengthy labor dispute.
Hosino, a mother of three, said she lives paycheck to paycheck and had to move in with family to make ends meet.
She said the protest is "just trying to show all the extra work we do, all the extra things that the students know and love, things like proms and graduation."
The state and teachers have made no progress in recent months toward reaching an agreement.
Federal mediation, which many had hoped would produce a deal, ended in early October.
The Hawaii State Teachers Association has told its members it will begin negotiations Wednesday for a 2013-15 contract.
Wil Okabe, HSTA president, said the "work-to-rule" protest illustrates the "frustration of teachers around the state."
He said the union fully supports the protest but that the event was planned by teachers.
"They’re taking their own initiatives because of their dissatisfaction," he said. "It’s about respect and making education a priority."
In an emailed statement, Louise Kim McCoy, spokeswoman for Gov. Neil Abercrombie, said the state is "committed to negotiate until we reach a resolution that can be ratified successfully by the HSTA membership."
HSTA has been embroiled in a dispute since the state unilaterally implemented a "last, best and final" contract offer that included wage reductions and higher health insurance premiums.
The union has argued the state’s imposition of a contract violated its members’ rights and collective bargaining laws. The state countered it had to act to avoid massive layoffs.
The "last, best" offer expires June 30.
