Hawaii-2010-SB2904-Introduced

SECTION 1. The legislature recognized in 1970 the right of public employees to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining and enacted Hawaii's collective bargaining law which is codified in chapter 89, Hawaii Revised Statutes. In enacting Hawaii's collective bargaining law, the legislature found that joint decision-making was the modern way of administering government and in cases where public employees had been granted the right to share in the decision-making process affecting wages and working conditions, they had become more responsive and better able to exchange ideas and information on operations with their administrators.

Since 1970, Hawaii's collective bargaining law has been reevaluated and amended more than fifty times, with each amendment reflecting the need for legislative action to respond to changing times, needs and circumstances. The legislature finds that it is again at a point in time where Hawaii's collective bargaining law must be reevaluated and amended to repair the deteriorating bargaining process that has plagued Hawaii's public school system under Hawaii's present collective bargaining law.

In 1973, Hawaii experienced its first public workers strike which was between Hawaii's teachers union and the department of education. This strike lasted eighteen days and resulted in lost instructional days for Hawaii's public school students that were never recovered. In 2001, another statewide teachers strike lasted for twenty days and again resulted in the loss of instructional days for public school students. Although new contracts were achieved by reaching agreement between the teachers union and the department of education in 1972, 1984, and 1997, teacher strikes were averted in the eleventh hour with disruption and distractions in classrooms and school operations because of the uncertainty and disharmony leading up to the new agreements. In 2009, budgetary restrictions applicable to the department of education for fiscal years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 have resulted in a collective bargaining agreement that requires approximately thirteen thousand public school teachers to take seventeen furlough days, beginning in the current school year. This reduction of the public school year by seventeen furlough days gives Hawaii the shortest school year in the nation and deprives Hawaii's public school students of educational opportunities they will never get back.

The purpose of this Act is to bring stability back to Hawaii's public school system by changing the collective bargaining law to allow teachers to exercise their constitutional right to organize and negotiate as a collective group, while protecting the rights, needs, and dreams of Hawaii's public school students by keeping teachers in Hawaii's classrooms during the contract negotiation process.

SECTION 2. Section 89-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsections (d) and (e) to read as follows:

"(d) If an impasse exists between a public employer and the exclusive bargaining representative of bargaining unit (1), nonsupervisory employees in blue collar positions; [~~bargaining unit (5), teachers and other personnel of the department of education;~~] or bargaining unit (7), faculty of the University of Hawaii and the community college system, the board shall assist in the resolution of the impasse as follows:

(1) Voluntary mediation. During the first twenty days of the date of impasse, either party may request the board to assist in a voluntary resolution of the impasse by appointing a mediator or mediators, representative of the public from a list of qualified persons maintained by the board;

(2) Mediation. If the impasse continues more than twenty days, the board shall appoint a mediator or mediators representative of the public from a list of qualified persons maintained by the board, to assist the parties in a voluntary resolution of the impasse. The board may compel the parties to attend mediation, reasonable in time and frequency, until the fiftieth day of impasse. Thereafter, mediation shall be elective with the parties, subject to the approval of the board;

(3) Report of the board. The board shall promptly report to the appropriate legislative body or bodies the following circumstances as each occurs:

(A) The date of a tentative agreement and whether the terms thereof are confidential between the parties;

(B) The ratification or failure of ratification of a tentative agreement;

(D) The terms of a tentative agreement; or

(E) On or about the fiftieth day of impasse, the failure of mediation.

The parties shall provide the board with the requisite information; and

(4) After the fiftieth day of impasse, the parties may resort to such other remedies that are not prohibited by any agreement pending between them, other provisions of this chapter, or any other law.

(e) If an impasse exists between a public employer and the exclusive representative of bargaining unit (2), supervisory employees in blue collar positions; bargaining unit (3), nonsupervisory employees in white collar positions; bargaining unit (4), supervisory employees in white collar positions; bargaining unit (5), teachers and other personnel of the department of education; bargaining unit (6), educational officers and other personnel of the department of education under the same salary schedule; bargaining unit (8), personnel of the University of Hawaii and the community college system, other than faculty; bargaining unit (9), registered professional nurses; bargaining unit (10), institutional, health, and correctional workers; bargaining unit (11), firefighters; bargaining unit (12), police officers; or bargaining unit (13), professional and scientific employees, the board shall assist in the resolution of the impasse as follows:

(1) Mediation. During the first twenty days after the date of impasse, the board shall immediately appoint a mediator, representative of the public from a list of qualified persons maintained by the board, to assist the parties in a voluntary resolution of the impasse.

(2) Arbitration. If the impasse continues twenty days after the date of impasse, the board shall immediately notify the employer and the exclusive representative that the impasse shall be submitted to a three-member arbitration panel who shall follow the arbitration procedure provided herein.

(A) Arbitration panel. Two members of the arbitration panel shall be selected by the parties; one shall be selected by the employer and one shall be selected by the exclusive representative. The neutral third member of the arbitration panel, who shall chair the arbitration panel, shall be selected by mutual agreement of the parties. In the event that the parties fail to select the neutral third member of the arbitration panel within thirty days from the date of impasse, the board shall request the American Arbitration Association, or its successor in function, to furnish a list of five qualified arbitrators from which the neutral arbitrator shall be selected. Within five days after receipt of such list, the parties shall alternately strike names from the list until a single name is left, who shall be immediately appointed by the board as the neutral arbitrator and chairperson of the arbitration panel.

(B) Final positions. Upon the selection and appointment of the arbitration panel, each party shall submit to the panel, in writing, with copy to the other party, a final position which shall include all provisions in any existing collective bargaining agreement not being modified, all provisions already agreed to in negotiations, and all further provisions which each party is proposing for inclusion in the final agreement.

(C) Arbitration hearing. Within one hundred twenty days of its appointment, the arbitration panel shall commence a hearing at which time the parties may submit either in writing or through oral testimony, all information or data supporting their respective final positions. The arbitrator, or the chairperson of the arbitration panel together with the other two members, are encouraged to assist the parties in a voluntary resolution of the impasse through mediation, to the extent practicable throughout the entire arbitration period until the date the panel is required to issue its arbitration decision.

(D) Arbitration decision. Within thirty days after the conclusion of the hearing, a majority of the arbitration panel shall reach a decision pursuant to subsection (f) on all provisions that each party proposed in its respective final position for inclusion in the final agreement and transmit a preliminary draft of its decision to the parties. The parties shall review the preliminary draft for completeness, technical correctness, and clarity and may mutually submit to the panel any desired changes or adjustments that shall be incorporated in the final draft of its decision. Within fifteen days after the transmittal of the preliminary draft, a majority of the arbitration panel shall issue the arbitration decision."

SECTION 3. Section 2 of this Act shall not apply to collective bargaining agreements applicable to the 2009-2010 and 2010‑2011 school years.

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

SENATE	S.B. NO.	2904
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010
STATE OF HAWAII