Bargaining a Progressive Contract - Manuscript

In the academic year 2000-2001, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly (UHPA) sought to bargain a contract on its conventional cycle for the period 2002-2003 with the State of Hawaii. The effort failed, leading to a two-week strike in April, coinciding with a state-wide strike of the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA). For the first time in U.S. history the entirety of a state’s public education system was on strike with its state employer. For UHPA the strike had been provoked primarily by the gap between the state’s salary offer and the union’s request. To place the matter in context, during the 1990’s, while the other states had experienced “Clinton prosperity” with a record number of quarters of positive economic growth, Hawai’i (its economy closely tied to Japan’s) had lagged, entering negative growth in 1996. From 1993 onward, the University struggled to maintain its state budgetary support, and collective bargaining for all public unions was a tortured affair. Matters came to a head in the strike of April 2001