• Toxic spring cleaning • Coco Palms extension request should be denied or deferred Toxic spring cleaning In response to Katy Rose’s article (“Support Solis as labor secretary,” Letters, Feb. 3), I would like to share my own experiences in
• Toxic spring cleaning
• Coco Palms extension request should be denied or deferred
Toxic spring cleaning
In response to Katy Rose’s article (“Support Solis as labor secretary,” Letters, Feb. 3), I would like to share my own experiences in an effort to form a union for a group of truly forgotten and abused segment of Hawai‘i’s workforce, substitute teachers.
When I entered the arena of education I truly had no idea what to expect. It did not take me long to figure out that substitute teachers were being taken advantage of and mistreated in a manner that would never be tolerated in the private sector.
For example, if an employer hires an employee and has that employee work more than approximately 20 hours a week, the employer must, by state and federal law, provide benefits to that employee such as health and unemployment benefits. Not so for the state Department of Education.
Substitute teachers are provided no benefits by their state employer. Since there is, and always has been, a shortage of reliable substitutes to fulfill the need for over 1,000 to 1,200 substitutes per day in our educational system, in the class rooms, laws are broken and substitute teachers suffer.
There are many other abuses that can be brought forth, such as the DOE withholding portions of substitute teachers’ pay for uses other than these funds were legislated for. Hawai‘i’s DOE withheld such salaries for nine years until a class action suit was filed and won by Hawai‘i’s substitute teachers. Of course, substitutes’ back pay has still yet to be paid since it is still tied up in the higher court system awaiting a judge’s decision.
Also, I have never heard of state or federal employees receiving “pay cuts” until just a few years ago when Hawai‘i’s DOE gave substitute teachers pay cuts the very same day the DOE gave regular teachers pay raises. I guess substitutes had to pay for the teacher’s raises?
How about some pay cuts for the department heads since they are certainly not doing their jobs of educating our children and grandchildren. I know if I withheld salaries from employees in the private sector I would be in jail. How about some DOE department heads spending some time in some state facilities?
Imagine having about 19 percent of your salary withheld for nine years, of having won a court decision and still having to wait to see if our judicial system will stand behind common sense and decency?
An appropriate question to substitute teachers’ dilemma might be: Where have the unions been these past five to seven years during this fight for justice? The answer is that they have been siding with the DOE and have been fighting substitute efforts to form a union of their own in order to fight for the rights of substitutes. Also, where’s the Board of Education? Being the “boss” of the DOE, do they approve of these policies, these injustices?
It is the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association; the Hawai‘i Government Employees Association; and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees that testify against a substitute teachers’ union every legislative session that has such a bill before the Legislature. It’s a combined effort of the unions, guided by DOE/BOE leadership and the state legislators’ willingness to kill any bill that will grant collective bargaining rights or any benefits to our substitute group of state employees, which by the way, is a right guaranteed and written into the Hawai‘i Revised Statues.
So, I would suggest, before one accuses Republicans, conservatives, employers (of the private sector I am sure) of running “campaigns of intimidation and disinformation during organizing campaigns” or of “making the false claim that union organizers intimidate workers” and that “employers hold the purse strings of the workers’ futures,” that Katy, her husband and all other union members examine closely their own “house” and begin some much needed “spring cleaning” before spring arrives this year.
The truth is, in Hawai‘i the “purse strings” and “workers’ futures” are controlled by the unions and the lopsided political majority that have only one mantra in mind when it comes to policy: “money, power, politics” and forget our children’s futures. Truly, a toxic mixture for irresponsible leadership.
• John Hoff, Lawai
Coco Palms extension request should be denied or deferred
Coco Palms is back on the Planning Commission agenda today with the developer asking for a two-year time extension for their permits. Public testimony will be heard and can also be e-mailed to: mlaureta@kauai.gov. Please include the subject line in your e-mail.
Given the developer’s own admission that they are still searching for investors, the project may not be viable in this depressed economic climate. Consider how likely it is that an extension will result in substantial construction within the next two years.
If permits are allowed to expire on May 23 and if property values go down, then nonprofits, government or Hawaiian organizations may be able to acquire the site. Grassroots support is building for public acquisition of this property, along with support from Sen. Hooser.
Since Coco Palms received permit approvals in January 2005, there has been no good faith effort by the developer to implement improvements to the property.
• Many months were wasted trying to secure permits for a spa facility that is not allowable by law in the Open District;
• The historic fishpond and coconut groves have remained neglected and public access blocked despite conditions that were imposed to protect these important cultural sites;
• Demolition permits have been approved, yet the blight of hurricane-damaged buildings along the highway have been ignored; and
• There have been significant delays to highway improvements due to unresolved issues.
Please let commissioners know your opinion. What outcome would be most beneficial for Kaua‘i?
Although extensions have been granted as a matter of course for many developments in the past, it may not be realistic to do so now. If not denied, an extension should be contingent on the developer taking immediate action to provide public benefits. Only then should commissioners consider granting a two-year time extension.
Since time is short, residents could ask commissioners to defer their decision until the next meeting so that more folks have the opportunity for input.
• Pat Tingley, Kapa‘a
