Presently, nearly 90% of charter schools are non-union. Less than 10% of charter teachers belong to a union. This is not by chance or happenstance. Although the late Albert Shanker was a pioneer of the charter idea in 1988 (and turned against charters in 1993 because they had been taken over by privatizers), the charter movement today is firmly anti-union. Many of its major funders–like the Walton Family Foundation–are antagonistic to unions. Many of its strongest advocates believe that management must be free to hire and fire teachers at will and set compensation at will.
This article in “The American Prospect” by Rachel M. Cohen explores the complexity of relations between charters and unions. A few charters tolerate unions; most fight them.
The NEA and AFT are actively trying to organize charter teachers. This is challenging because of high teacher turnover and often hostile charter management. As the numbers show, they have had limited success, but Cohen says that the unions have softened their opposition to charters in hopes of establishing unions in more charters.
The article begins::
“The April sun had not yet risen in Los Angeles when teachers from the city’s largest charter network—the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools—gathered outside for a press conference to discuss their new union drive. Joined by local labor leaders, politicians, student alumni, and parents, the importance of the educators’ effort was not lost on the crowd. If teachers were to prevail in winning collective bargaining rights at Alliance’s 26 schools, the audience recognized, then L.A.’s education reform landscape would fundamentally change. For years, after all, many of the most powerful charter backers had proclaimed that the key to helping students succeed was union-free schools.
“One month earlier, nearly 70 Alliance teachers and counselors had sent a letter to the administration announcing their intent to join United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), the local teachers union that represents the 35,000 educators who work in L.A.’s public schools. The letter asked Alliance for a “fair and neutral process”—one that would allow teachers to organize without fear of retaliation. The administration offered no such reassurance. Indeed, April’s press conference was called to highlight a newly discovered internal memo circulating among Alliance administrators that offered tips on how to best discourage staff from forming a union. It also made clear that Alliance would oppose any union, not just UTLA. “To continue providing what is best for our schools and our students, the goal is no unionization, not which union,” the memo said.
“The labor struggle happening in Los Angeles mirrors a growing number of efforts taking place at charter schools around the country, where most teachers work with no job security on year-to-year contracts. For teachers, unions, and charter school advocates, the moment is fraught with challenges. Traditional unions are grappling with how they can both organize charter teachers and still work politically to curb charter expansion. Charter school backers and funders are trying to figure out how to hold an anti-union line, while continuing to market charters as vehicles for social justice.
“Though 68 percent of K-12 public school teachers are unionized, just 7 percent of charter school teachers are, according to a 2012 study from the Center for Education Reform. (And of those, half are unionized only because state law stipulates that they follow their district’s collective bargaining agreement.) However, the momentum both to open new charter schools and to organize charter staff is growing fast.”
Here is what happens when voucher schools run free in Milwaukee…the FBI gets involved. http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/parents-sue-military-style-voucher-school-for-abuse-humiliation-b99526501z1-309848851.html
Should union density reach a certain (currently undetermined) point in Charterworld, you’ll find even greater attrition among their Overclass patrons than you do among their students and teachers, and many of the schools will then come begging to be taken under the protection of the public schools they previously disdained and extracted resources from.
I support the effort to assist charter teachers in their efforts to unionize. I also support and encourage efforts to hold charters to the same accountability measures as public schools, including the accepting of the same percentage and level of disability of special ed students. Also, there has to be a way for school districts to be financially compensated when students leave on their own or are virtually kicked out of charters mid-year and then reenroll in the public school.
If you can accomplish all this, then the charter sector will greatly diminish. So far, charters have had a completely free ride, and they continue to fight in every way to keep it that way. If they can’t fire teachers at will, especially those who ask and demand answers about how the school is being run and those who are higher up on the pay scale, that will certainly take some wind out of their sails and hopefully give prospective charter operators second thoughts.
Does anyone know if teachers ended up relying a contract with their employers rather than state protections because they are exempt from many rules on overtime?
That makes sense to me- if there isn’t a regulatory protection a non-state entity (a union) might fill the gap, but I don’t know if there’s a connection there- I don’t know the history.
Chiara, we charter teachers aren’t eligible to be represented under the state labor laws due to our NLRB-determined status as private sector workers. In Chicago, we can’t legally be represented by the CTU contract, so we have to make our own.
In my district several years ago, a teacher was fired because he refused to hold IEP meetings after contract time, because he wasn’t paid for those. Not only did the district fire him, but the NEA affiliate wouldn’t back him up, saying that the contract states that we have to do “other duties as assigned,” even if we’re not paid for them. So the district and NEA agree that teachers are essentially indentured servants.
BTW: That’s in Utah, a “right to work” state.
Same contract language for public school teachers exists in Missouri.
Don’t join UTLA. It is in bed with LAUSD. Find another union or hire a good attorney,
In Los Angeles, teachers from the largest charter chain, Alliance, have been attempting to unionize. When and if a union is organized, it will represent over 600 teachers, teaching over 10,000 students.
Here’s a long post with highlights of the efforts to form/crush this budding effort. We’re talking about David & Goliath here… young teacher folks, some in their early and mid-twenties, from low-income or middle-income backgrounds, going up against a billion-dollar organization like the CCSA… and courageously facing an implied threat of having their future careers as teachers ruined through being blackballed by CCSA and its allies.
Alliance management and the California Charter School Association have responded with illegal attempts to crush the teachers. The CCSA is funded by Gates, Broad, Walton et al. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who wants to abolish all school boards, is on their board of directors.
These teachers have had to file actions with the state’s governing body PERB (Public Employee Relations Board) multiple times. Once a group of teachers embarks on an attempt to organize a union, management has to back off, and stay out.
That’s not happening. Alliance has even resorted to paying former students to call up teachers and parents, reading the scripts in front of them. They try to pressure the teachers to oppose forming a union, and try to manipulate the parents into pressuring the teachers into not unionizing. This has nothing to do with the students’ belief in the benefits of the school remaining non-union, as they have no such belief. They are dirt poor, and need the money. That’s all.
Here’s the script that trie to paint UTLA as the evil boogey man (stage directions are in the script, not from me, btw):
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“Hi, my name is _________________. Is ____________ there? I am calling from a group of alumni from Alliance Charter Schools. How are you doing today?
“Great. I wanted to make sure you knew about a situation at the Alliance that could affect how decisions are made about your children’s education. Did you know that right now there is an effort to start a teachers’ union at the Alliance?”
IF YES: “What have you heard about what’s going on?”
—- Please pay close attention to these responses and note what is said in NationBuilder. If they have heard something that you know isn’t true, refer to fact sheet to see if you can correct any of this information.
Then go on to next paragraph.
IF NO: Just go on to next paragraph.
“Well, what we know right now is that UTLA – the teachers’ union in LA Unified schools – is trying to organize Alliance teachers to join UTLA. Right now the Alliance is independent and doesn’t have a union.
“Having a teachers’ union would be a big change for the Alliance. It would end the independence that the Alliance has to make decisions on behalf of kids.
“And – I don’t know about your kids – but I chose to go to the Alliance because of the small class sizes, great teachers, and personalized attention.” [Add any other reasons you chose to attend the Alliance.]
“If UTLA unionized at the Alliance, UTLA would get involved in decisions about those things – like how to evaluate teachers and how much learning time kids get. Even class sizes – and a lot more – would need to be approved by UTLA.
“And, did you know that UTLA actually has a track record of opposing charter schools?
“It’s true. UTLA has been against charter schools and the Alliance for years. They’ve given money to candidates for LA School Board who voted to close some Alliance Schools.
“And, UTLA has supported laws that make charter schools – including the Alliance schools – harder to start and operate.
“This isn’t right. So we are asking parents to sign a petition in support of the Alliance as it is today … without UTLA.
“Will you please sign our petition?”
If NO: “May I ask why you won’t sign it?” [Gauge by their response if they are actually in support of UTLA or if they just need more info or say they are too busy. If they really won’t sign it, say:]
“OK, thank you for your time today. Have a great day.”
If YES: “Great! Can I get an email address where we can send it to you?”
[Please record in NationBuilder if we don’t already have it.]
[If we don’t have an email, say:] “Can we send you a text message with the web site so you can sign our petition? Is this number that I’ve called you on the best number to send it to?”
[If they provide another number, please record in NationBuilder.]
“Thanks so much for your time today, and thank you for your support of the Alliance. Have a great day!”
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Here’s an article:
http://laschoolreport.com/alliance-schools-paying-alumni-to-promote-anti-utla-message/
Both the phone call script and that story above frames Alliance’s union-busting as an “anti-UTLA” effort. The truth is, that the move to unionize originated internally at Alliance. Those teachers came to UTLA, not the other way around. The teachers at Alliance are free to pursue whatever course they wish, including an effort to unionize independent of UTLA.
Here’s another article:
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UTLA:
“Alliance administration initially responded by issuing a statement assuring teachers and counselors that they would ‘support any decision made by employees to join or not to join a union.’ In later responses to news publications Alliance stated that their intent is simply ‘to put out facts so teachers can make informed decisions.’
“However, recent actions and an internal memorandum authored by Alliance and circulated to administrators show that in fact there is a concerted campaign coordinated by Alliance home office to coerce and discourage teachers, and even parents, from supporting educators forming a union. The document is a guide for administrators on how to utilize personal information in pressuring teachers to not support a union, to illegally block teachers’ access to union information during non-work time, to attempt to silence pro-union teachers’ voices and encourage anti-union teachers, and campaign to parents to discourage them from supporting teachers.
“ ‘ We are disappointed that Alliance would deliberately claim to their educators and parents that they would not pressure teachers on the one hand and then on the other hand run an intentionally divisive anti-union campaign against us,’ said Oliver Aguirre, English teacher at Alliance Susan & Eric Smidt Technology High School in Lincoln Heights.
” ‘In addition to this new evidence and in response to continued coercion, illegal surveillance, and threats of receiving negative evaluations, Alliance teachers are filing additional Unfair Practice Charges with the California Public Employment Relations Board.’ ”
“ ‘The Alliance administration told us they would respect the decision of their teachers, but their anti-union behavior doesn’t feel respectful at all. This anti-union playbook shows that rather than respect the voices of their pro-union educators the Alliance is doing everything to discourage them,’ said Xochitl Johansen, special education teacher at Alliance Marc & Eva Stern Math and Science High School.”
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Again, we’re talking about David & Goliath here… young folks, some in their early and mid-twenties, from low-income or middle-income backgrounds, going up against a billion-dollar organization like the CCSA… and courageously facing an implied threat of having their future careers as teachers ruined through being blackballed by CCSA and its allies.
Finally, here’s the memo given to Alliance administrators, and leaked to the press. It’s basically a “How to Crush Unionization” Manual:
Click to access UTLA-Allaince-doc-1.pdf
EXCERPTS
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“Talking directly to your people is the best way. Principals can and should tell everyone often that we are doing what we can to stop this (organizing of a union)”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Make use of personal information about teachers in persuading them against forming a union: ‘ Feel free to highlight information you think might be useful to them. For example, if we know a teacher is concerned about finances, you might say,
” ‘I was amazed to learn that dues for this union could be about $700 a year. ’”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“You do not have to allow union representatives on your campus.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“The goal is NO unionization, not WHICH union (becomes allied with Alliance teachers, once a union is formed, JACK)”
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Regarding part of the script where the Alliance administrator, with no prodding from upper management (COUGH! COUGH!), makes the “amazing” discovery that a prospective union—horror or horrors!—charges dues that may amount to $700/year, keep this in mind. UTLA just negotiated a 10% raise that covers that amount many times over, even for first year teachers at the lowest end of the salary scale.
Does that Alliance administrator actually think the teachers in UTLA would have received that double-digit salary increase if they were 35,000 isolated independent contractors, instead of collective unionized force, with the power to collectively bargain and funded by dues?
One more thing, here’s UTLA’s timeline of illegal union-busting activity:
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“Timeline of Alliance Anti-Union Activity:
“FRIDAY, MARCH 13th – Almost 70 teachers at Alliance announce that they want to form a union at their schools. Alliance Chief Executive Dan Katzir told the Los Angeles Times that ‘We acknowledge the rights of our teachers to undertake this effort. We also recognize that our teachers are under no obligation to participate.'[1]
Judy Burton, former Alliance CEO and Dan Katzir send their first communication to staff regarding union activity stating, ‘To be clear, we do not endorse or denounce any particular union or unions generally. Regardless, we will support any decision by employees to join or not join a union.’
“MONDAY, MARCH 16th – Alliance sends a letter to teachers under the guise of facts about organizing. It says that teachers have a right to join a union free from coercion. The letter, sent to every teacher from their supervisor, then attacks unionization and unions. (ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
“WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18th- Alliance, despite legal right to have union meetings on non-work time tells teachers and union organizers that they have no right to meet on school property. (ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
“FRIDAY, MARCH 20th – Alliance purchases a domain that will house their anti-union website.[2]
“FRIDAY, MARCH 20th—Alliance distributes another letter to certificated staff under the guise of more facts about UTLA and the union. The letter expands on the March 16th the attack on unionization, unions and UTLA. (ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
“MONDAY, MARCH 23rd—Dan Katzir sends an email to all staff encouraging staff to “give me a fair opportunity to prove that commitment to you—in not just words, but action—before you make any decisions on the unionization question.” (ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
“MONDAY, MARCH 23rd – Alliance management sends a letter to parents attacking the teacher’s decision to form a union signed by Dan Katzir and former CEO Judy Burton. [3] (ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
“WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25th- Alliance illegally blocks email newsletter to Alliance educators from Alliance Educators United. (ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
“THURSDAY, MARCH 26th- Alliance, despite legal right to have union meetings on non-work time tells teachers and union organizers that they have no right to meet on school property. (ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
“THURSDAY, MARCH 26th – Alliance website attacking the union goes online. [4] (ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
“THURSDAY, MARCH 26th—Alliance sends a memo to all certificated staff outlining the benefits Alliance offers its teachers and stating, ‘We respectfully disagree with the assertion that unionization with UTLA would help advance educational opportunities with our students.’(ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
“FRIDAY, MARCH 27th- Alliance does an automated phone call to parents and families at one or more schools criticizing the unionization effort of educators.” (ILLEGAL, under California’s PERB laws, JACK)
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The CCSA knows that if Alliance goes union, teachers the other chains may also follow suit… KIPP, Aspire, etc.
Oh… and if you care about these teachers, go “LIKE” their “ALLIANCE EDUCATORS UNITED” Facebook page , and perhaps leave a supportive comment or two:
https://www.facebook.com/allianceeducators
… or sign Alliance Educators United’s petition on Move On.org:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/alliance-college-ready
Oops, I left some links out of the above post:
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Here’s a link to the “script” used by phone callers in the above post:
http://utla.net/parentcalls-script-052015
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Here’s a link to the article about Alliance paying alumni to make calls:
http://laschoolreport.com/alliance-schools-paying-alumni-to-promote-anti-utla-message/
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Here’s a link to the article where the two Alliance teachers, Oliver Aguirre and Xochitl Johansen, were quoted:
http://utla.net/node/5627
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Here’s here’s link to the article that references, the memo given to Alliance administrators, and leaked to the press. It’s basically a “How to Crush Unionization” Manual:
Click to access UTLA-Allaince-doc-1.pdf
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Finally, here’s the link to the timeline of Alliance’s illegal union-busting activity:
http://utla.net/node/5594
Our union recently organized teachers at Chicago’s Urban Prep charter schools after months of a very determined anti-union campaign. One June 3, teachers voted 56-36 for a union. Last Friday, they fired 15 of them, almost all of them union supporters (about 17% of the staff). Two of these teachers were leaders of the organizing committee; of those, one was given no reason for her firing, and the other was fired for throwing a pizza party for the track team students and their parents.
http://catalyst-chicago.org/2015/06/union-accuses-urban-prep-of-retaliatory-firings/
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/721938/union-claims-15-urban-prep-teachers-fired-union-support–
They should lawyer up, and sue the sh#% out of Urban Prep.
Yeah, we’ve already filed ULPs. Two, I think. We also sent a demand to bargain, which they ignored.
This is a great article. This quote from the article says it all, in a nutshell:
“When I asked Sarah Apt, an ESL teacher at Olney, if she ever tried to talk to management about workplace issues before going the union route, she laughed. ‘We’ve had a million committees and conversations,’ Apt says.
“ ‘You can have a conversation with them now! But without your coworkers standing behind you, the [outcome of] the conversation depends entirely on the whims of the administration.’ ”
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Here’s a more great quotes;
======================
On union-busting efforts of charter management:
“That was just the start of a full-bore, anti-union campaign: Administrators held closed-door, one-on-one meetings with teachers and staff, threatened teachers with layoffs and benefit cuts, put anti-union literature in teachers’ mailboxes, required teachers to attend mandatory meetings with anti-union consultants, and announced that teachers could be fired or disciplined for remarks they made about ASPIRA on social media.
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Here’s how the article ends:
“Asharg Molla has been working at the Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School ever since she started as a Los Angeles Teach For America corps member in 2009. She likes working for a charter organization, and believes in its mission of creating a small collaborative community where teachers, board members, and parents can all work together.
“ ‘But that’s just not what it’s been,’ she says sadly. While she speaks highly of her school, colleagues, and principals, she joined in with the Alliance cohort organizing for a union because, she says, she recognizes there are limits to what even a good principal can do within a big, fast-growing organization. She knows too many Alliance teachers who are afraid to speak up, lest they rock the boat and lose their job.
“The campaign in Los Angeles is gaining steam. Since Molla and her colleagues went public in March, the number of teachers who have pledged support has more than doubled—146 teachers (out of the roughly 600 who work at Alliance schools) have now signed the public petition. But Alliance administrators and their allies are doubling down on their efforts to thwart unionization. Beginning in late May, the California Charter Schools Association started to pay Alliance alumni to call parents at home, in an effort to drum up opposition to a union.
“ ‘I don’t want to work for a machine that just cares about the growth and expansion of the organization,’ says Molla. ‘Although [fighting for a union] is not an easy process, and can be exhausting, it really just shows these large organizations that we are the ones who make up this organization and that there needs to be that balance of power.’ ”
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We’re talking about David & Goliath here… young teacher folks, some in their early and mid-twenties, from low-income or middle-income backgrounds, going up against a billion-dollar organization like the California Charter Schools Association… and courageously facing an implied threat of having their future careers as teachers ruined through being blackballed by CCSA and its allies.
Even know-it-all-and-it’s-all-about-me-charter-school-lover Joe Nathan has proposed that charters should be unionized, and he even indicated a few to me a while back that were unionized.
Is Joe onto something?
Joe, care to chime in if you are reading? Have not heard from you in a long while.
Here is what happens when charter teachers join a union. From today’s Philadelphia Daily News:
image: http://media.philly.com/designimages/partnerIcon-DailyNews-2014.jpg
TEACHERS AT Olney Charter High School learned yesterday that school administrators are expected to slash 36 jobs due to a deficit, the Daily News has learned.
Additionally, Olney Principal Jose LeBron’s contract was not renewed by the school’s charter operator, ASPIRA Inc. of Pennsylvania, multiple sources familiar with the situation told the People Paper. LeBron, a former school district principal, has worked at Olney since it opened as a charter in 2011.
Earlier in the day, LeBron held a morning meeting and informed staff that a $2.3 million budget gap would result in the loss of 22 teachers and 14 noninstructional positions from the high school, according to teachers at the meeting.
The teachers, who with other school staff voted to unionize in April, were incensed with ASPIRA, teachers said. They headed over to rally against the cuts in front of ASPIRA headquarters, on 5th Street near Bristol in North Philadelphia.
“My gut feeling is that they are doing it to retaliate for our union organizing and they’re trying to eliminate positions,” said Ellie Sammons, a 12th grade civics and psychology teacher, holding a sign. “With those positions go strong, active teachers.”
Teachers at other ASPIRA schools have secured contracts and raises while Olney staffers have been promised contracts but have yet to receive them, teachers say.
“If I don’t know what I’m teaching next year, how am I supposed to spend a minute of my summer planning for that instructional time?” asked Drew Harris, a 10th and 11th grade English teacher.
Olney’s Alliance of Charter School Employees has yet to be certified by the National Labor Relations Board. It was supposed to be certified in early May, but ASPIRA officials challenged the authority of the federal board to oversee the union vote.
The NLRB regional director’s decision on the matter is pending.
ASPIRA’s new spokeswoman, Emma Restrepo, said in statement: “Olney is working to have its teacher contracts in the mail over the weekend so that our teachers have them early next week. We apologize for this delay.”
Meanwhile, the Olney group’s parent union, the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania, issued a statement last night from its president, Ted Kirsch.
ASPIRA is “crying poor after spending tens of thousands of dollars on union-busting [that] has left the staff at Olney understandably enraged,” Kirsch said.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150626_Olney_Charter_teachers_protest_layoffs.html#lOKqipLQKvXQqUMA.99
“Charter school backers and funders are trying to figure out how to hold an anti-union line, while continuing to market charters as vehicles for social justice.” In other words, how to be hypocrites.
“Though 68 percent of K-12 public school teachers are unionized, just 7 percent of charter school teachers are, according to a 2012 study from the Center for Education Reform. (And of those, half are unionized only because state law stipulates that they follow their district’s collective bargaining agreement.) However, the momentum both to open new charter schools and to organize charter staff is growing fast.”
Watch for ALEC and more governors and legislators move rapidly to set up state laws that prohibit collective bargaining, especially if the charter teachers want in.
Here’s another Move.On petition in support of workers (not teachers this time) fired for trying to unionize:
https://www.change.org/p/allow-us-to-return-to-work
To answer the question–as per the 6/25 Edushyster post–my guess is that they’d (or most of them, anyway) be fired–especially the organizers of such an outrage!
AFT is providing little to no assistance for my colleagues and me. That should allow them plenty of time to organize charter school teachers.