HAWAII TEACHERS' UNION NOW OPPOSES NEW CONTRACT'S RANDOM DRUG TESTING

State Files Complaint, Says Teachers' Union Not Acting In Good Faith

The Hawaii State Teachers Association, which accepted random drug
testing as part of a new contract last year, now says it is opposed to
such tests.

Mike McCartney, executive director of the HSTA, said the teachers'
union would accept "reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol testing,"
but not random testing.

McCartney made the statement Thursday in a letter to state Department
of Education Superintendent Pat Hamamoto.

Teachers agreed to random drug testing in June 2007 as part of a new
contract that included pay increases of up to 11 percent over 18
months. Most of the pay increases have already taken effect.

The contract called for random drug testing to begin on June 30, but
testing hasn't started. Education and union officials have been
attempting to negotiate the procedures for a random drug testing program.

State officials say that the union is failing to comply with terms of
the teachers' contract.

"They no longer agree to random drug testing," said Jim Halvorson,
state deputy attorney general. "They are categorically saying that
they will not agree to random drug testing."

The state filed a formal complaint with the Hawai'i Labor Relations
Board against the union yesterday, alleging the union has failed to
negotiate terms of the testing program in good faith.

The state Office of Collective Bargaining filed the complaint, saying
the union has refused to comply with the teachers' contract.

The union will have 10 days to submit a response to the
complaint.

In its Thursday letter, the union said it has learned, since teachers
agreed to random drug testing, that the testing is not consistent with
state and federal constitutions.

"Today, both parties know much more about the legal issues surrounding
drug testing that were not known at the time of the initial
agreement," McCartney said in his letter.

"We cannot knowingly agree to procedures that violate the state and
federal constitutions. Any agreement of this type would subject the
state and all of us to unnecessary litigation," McCartney wrote.

During the weeks leading up to and the days that followed the June 30
deadline, HSTA president Roger Takabayashi consistently said the
teachers' union was negotiating the terms of the drug-testing program
in good faith.

State officials questioned that claim.

"As far as I am concerned, they have not been acting in good faith,"
said Marie Laderta, director of the state Department of Human
Resources Development.

"They've had one year to do this and they haven't done anything. ...
The feeling is that they've been deliberately stalling," she said.

In a written statement yesterday, Gov. Linda Lingle said HSTA is
making "a mockery of the collective bargaining process."

Before receiving notice from the union this week, education officials
were considering a less expensive random drug-testing program for
Hawai'i teachers following criticism that their original plan to
create a $500,000, six-person office was unrealistic.

Under the scaled-down program, 1 percent or 2 percent of the state's
13,500 public school teachers were to be tested each year instead of
25 percent as previously envisioned, said Karen Knudsen, vice
chairwoman of the state Board of Education.