We desperately need your help. During the last two and a half years we have received no pay increases, effectively cutting our pay already. I don't need to decode this for you. Cayetano is strangling the life out of this university, he is betraying the school-children of the state, especially those who can't afford to go to more expensive mainland schools, and he's dealing a fatal blow to the labor movement in Hawaii. All public education in Hawaii is at a standstill.
Support here is strong.
And the local community here has been behind the striking teachers so far, isolating Cayetano but failing to do more than force him into the appearance of negotiation. Can you please forward this email to as many colleagues and friends as you can. Can you please organize expressions of support through your own institutions, faculty organizations, professional associations or unions. Can you please organize official and personal expressions of protest directed at the Governor of the state, letting him know how damaging this strike will be to higher education in Hawaii, and to the prosperity of the Hawaiian economy. For a start, we have proved that professors can organize pickets, and turn out en masse to support a strike like this.