Hawaii's teachers strike over

By Bruce Dunford
The Associated Press

The 19-day strike by Hawaii's public teachers ended early Tuesday only hours before a federal judge could have intervened and appointed a receiver for the school system.

A union spokeswoman, Danielle Lum, said the Hawaii State Teachers Association's 50-member board approved the deal just before midnight Monday (6 a.m. EDT) and would formally present it to teachers statewide for formal ratification later Tuesday.

The strike kept the state's more than 180,000 elementary, middle and high school students out of classes for 14 school days over more than three full weeks.

Details of the deal between the state and the 13,000 public school teachers were not immediately disclosed, though teachers were expected to return to schools on Wednesday, with classes to start Thursday.

"We're very pleased with the settlement. Our board overwhelmingly ratified it," said Joan Husted, union executive secretary. "I think the teachers feel the strike accomplished their goals. If they had to do it again, they would."

Lum said state and union negotiators were still meeting early Tuesday to "dot all the i's and cross the t's" before sending the new contract to teachers. Teachers were expected to continue picketing until the vote.

A separate strike by University of Hawaii faculty that also began April 5 ended when professors reached a two-year contract agreement with the state last week. The coinciding strikes were the first time a state's entire public education system had been closed by a labor dispute.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra had scheduled a hearing Tuesday on a motion urging him to appoint a receiver for the school system to restore special-education services that have been cut off by the strike.

Ezra has the authority to intervene due to a federal consent decree which orders the state to improve services to special needs students by December. The strike denied education and health services for some 11,000 children with behavioral problems.

The state's last public school strike was in 1973, when 9,000 Hawaii teachers stayed out of the classroom for 17 days. That strike was settled with an 18 percent pay raise over a three-year contract.

Teachers had demanded salary increases to make up for the state's high cost of living. A key demand was for retroactive pay to cover two years the teachers have worked without a contract.

Gov. Ben Cayetano had said the state couldn't afford that. In the last offers made public, the union had called for raises totaling $187 million, while the state proposed $93 million in increases.

Hawaii's teachers earn between $29,000(US) and $58,000(US) a year. The state ranked 18th among the 50 states in a National Education Association list of average 1998-99 salaries, at $40,377 a year. But Hawaii's cost of living is often estimated at about 20 to 30 percent higher than most mainland communities.

Sourced from: New Jersey Online