Status of Our Two-Year Faculty Contract
Our current contract will expire in June 2015. The Hawaii State Legislature must approve our new, two-year contract in this legislative session. The session ends in early May, about a month before our current contract expires. Our new contract is scheduled to start July 2015 and continue through June 2017.
What’s at Stake?
The agreement includes an across-the-board 4 percent increase for all UH faculty and lecturers on July 1, 2015 and another across-the-board 4 percent increase the following year. It will also address minimum salaries and the increased employer contributions to the health insurance premiums provided through the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund. The projected total for this contract is $32 million.
There are two themes in this legislative session: reduce costs and increase revenues. The faculty salary increases are in the Governor’s budget. However, UHPA will continue to watch how this progresses throughout the session.
Chronological Background:
June 2014:
UHPA, Gov. Neil Abercrombie, the UH Board of Regents and the UH administration announce they have reached a tentative two-year agreement, a year before the current faculty contract was to set to expire in June 2015. It was the first time a public sector successor contract had been reached so far in advance.
August 2014:
After the UHPA Board of Directors unanimously vote in favor of ratifying the tentative agreement, the nearly 4,000 Bargaining Unit 7 members across the 10 UH campuses subsequently ratify the contract via electronic vote on August 24, 2014.
November 2014:
All parties involved in the negotiation that led to the unprecedented agreement convene to officially sign the two-year agreement on November 3, 2014. The agreement is signed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, J.N. Musto, UHPA Executive Director and Chief Negotiator; and David Duffy, UHPA President; David Lassner, UH President; John Morton, UH Vice President for Community Colleges; and Jan Sullivan, Vice Chair of the UH Board of Regents.
