LIHU‘E — Dozens of teachers stood in front of Wilcox Elementary School Tuesday — before and after school — to rally in favor of a negotiated contract for teachers. Tom Perry of the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association said Tuesday’s sign-waving
LIHU‘E — Dozens of teachers stood in front of Wilcox Elementary School Tuesday — before and after school — to rally in favor of a negotiated contract for teachers.
Tom Perry of the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association said Tuesday’s sign-waving and protest was part of a statewide effort to reach out to the community and bring awareness to the ongoing situation.
For more than a year, Hawai‘i public school teachers have been working without a negotiated contract. According to Perry, this is the first time in the state’s history that a governor has imposed the state’s “last, best and final offer,” at a time when teachers felt they were still in the midst of negotiations.
Felicia Villalobos, a first-grade teacher at Wilcox Elementary, was one of those teachers involved in Tuesday’s protest, wearing red and waving a sign which read “Fair Deal for Teachers and Students.”
Villalobos, who has a master’s degree in education, says she has been forced to work a second job at the Kaua‘i Beach Resort just “to make ends meet.”
“We want the governor to come back and negotiate a fair deal … we want him to end furloughs,” she said. “(Right now) we are working under his rules.”
The contracts implemented in July 2011 include a 5 percent wage reduction and higher health-care premiums.
“They’re taking more out of my paycheck and we’re paying a higher premium,” said Susan Harper, a special education teacher at Wilcox Elementary.
Harper says the amount of time teachers put in does not equal the amount they are paid for. She personally works at least 10 hours overtime per week.
“We deserve to be heard and put first, as we put our students first,” she said.
Villalobos stressed something written on one of Tuesday’s protest signs — that a teacher’s working conditions are a student’s learning conditions.
Additional protests by teachers at Wilcox Elementary are scheduled for next week, according to Villalobos.
Perry said he hopes that parents and the public will get involved to pressure Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
“They (parents) are the real power,” he said.
Earlier this month, the HSTA launched a website, contractforthefuture.org, devoted to the union’s efforts to end the 16-month-long labor dispute with Abercrombie.
“We’re really pushing things forward so that we can get a fair contract,” Perry said. “We believe he (Abercrombie) has violated the teachers’ rights.”
Negotiations continue.
• Chris D’Angelo can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 241) or lifestyle@thegardenisland.com.
