STAND. COM. REP. NO 100

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 406

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 406 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow full-time graduate student assistants employed by the University of Hawaii to collectively bargain.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, Hawaii Government Employees Association, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142, Americans for Democratic Action, Hawaii State American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Graduate Student Organization, IMUAlliance, Hawaii Democratic Party Labor Caucus, Hawaii State Teachers Association, and sixteen individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of Collective Bargaining, Department of Budget and Finance, and University of Hawaii System.

 

     Your Committees find that graduate student assistants employed by the University of Hawaii encounter numerous work-related issues including but not limited to budget reductions and increases in class size and workload.  However, under existing law, graduate student assistants are not authorized to collectively bargain.  Implementation of this measure will further higher education in the State and provide graduate student assistants employed at the University of Hawaii with a unified voice to discuss working conditions, wages, and benefits.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 406, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 406, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Higher Education,

 

________________________________

KAIALI'I KAHELE, Chair

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair