Pubdate: Wed, 23 Jul 2008
Source: Honolulu Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2008 The Honolulu Advertiser,
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/uXtrz8Lm
Website: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/195
Author: David Shapiro
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/HSTA

HSTA DISPLAYS DISTURBING LACK OF INTEGRITY

To Agree to Drug Tests and Then Renege Is Just Plain Dishonorable

Public school teachers displayed a disturbing lack of integrity when 
their union reneged on the random drug tests they agreed to in their 
contract with the state.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association last year accepted "random drug 
and alcohol testing procedures" as part of a two-year contract that 
paid them 4 percent annual raises and a step increase.

The agreement, which required drug tests to start June 30, was signed 
by HSTA president Roger Takabayashi and other top union leaders and 
ratified by 61 percent of the teachers voting.

The 13,000 public school teachers have already started collecting 
most of the pay raises.

Gov. Linda Lingle and the Board of Education have fought for months 
over who would pay for drug testing, with the board seeking $500,000 
for a six-person bureaucracy to test one-fourth of the teachers each 
year while Lingle said only 1 percent of the teachers needed to be 
tested annually at a cost of $35 per test.

While the politicians fought, the HSTA assured us they were ready to 
implement the drug agreement whenever the governor and the board 
worked out their differences.

"If they want us to fill a cup, we will," Takabayashi said in 
January, but the HSTA started back-pedaling when it looked like 
Lingle and the board were near a deal.

Last Thursday, HSTA executive director Mike McCartney notified the 
state that the union won't honor the agreement on random drug testing 
because HSTA now believes such testing violates the 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.

Nonsense. There have been no constitutional rulings breaking new 
ground on employee drug testing in the last year - nor any legal 
precedent for HSTA claiming the right to unilaterally decide what is 
constitutional and what is not.

This has moved beyond the issue of whether drug testing is right or 
wrong to a question of the integrity of the teachers who stand at the 
front of our children's classrooms.

If they thought drug testing was wrong, they should have had the 
courage to reject that part of the contract in last year's 
negotiations and dared Lingle to make it a strike issue.

To agree to random drug testing and then renege after the pay raises 
were already in their pockets was plain dishonorable.

The honest thing to do if they've had a change of heart would be to 
implement what they agreed to and seek legal remedy to have testing 
ruled unconstitutional.

If the court agrees with them, an injunction would likely be imposed 
before any drug tests were done - and if the court doesn't agree with 
them, the teachers would have no grounds to refuse the tests they agreed to.

The union seems reluctant to go this route because random drug 
testing is commonly used in other sensitive occupations and has stood up.

The Lingle administration filed a complaint with the Hawai'i Labor 
Relations Board and should defend the integrity of collective 
bargaining by pursuing means of voiding the contract and rescinding 
the pay raises.

At the very least, the governor should freeze negotiations for a new 
contract until the current contract is implemented.

In the year the teachers have whined about drug testing, the United 
Public Workers has willingly worked with the state to set up drug 
tests for its members to promote a drug-free workplace and set an 
example for the community.

If drug tests are OK for the school custodians and cafeteria workers 
UPW represents, what's so special about teachers? 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake