This is both sad and funny.
The “Charter High School For Law and Social Justice” fired 11 of its 15 teachers because they wanted to join the teachers’ union.
Doesn’t social justice mean that you listen to the voices of those who feel in need of protection and let them make their own decisions? Haven’t unions been part of the movement for social justice since the late nineteenth century? Don’t the powerful seek to crush collective bargaining so that each worker is on his or her own?
The abrupt dismissals forced the United Federation of Teachers, which represents educators at the Charter High School for Law and Social Justice in the Bronx, to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
“By discharging approximately 73% of the 15 bargaining unit members, CHSLSJ sent a clear message … support the UFT and you will be fired,” the complaint said.
“CHSLSJ’s actions demonstrate a clear attempt to derail the UFT’s status and support … and will irreparably chill bargaining unit members’ rights,” the union said.
The dismissals came after a year of attempts from the charter school teachers to negotiate a contract with CHSLSJ, which was approved as a charter school in 2013 and opened its doors in 2015.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There’s a saying that the suburbs are the place where they tear the trees down and name the streets after them. A similar phenomenon seems to be happening with charter schools. Let’s tear down the legacy of social justice, unionism, civil rights, etc. and let’s name the charter schools after them.
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Bravo!
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I believe that used to be against the law. Not anymore under the dictatorship we have running this country.
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It still is against the law , the slap on the wrist is ineffective.
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Firing teachers is the “innovation” of corporate charters. Innovation nowadays means lost jobs and low wages. Innovators nowadays are ruthless and cruel. Innovation nowadays is inhumane. The NLRB will make this charter pay. That will be justice.
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The NLRB is now in Republican control 2/1 . By next year some time the only member of the NLRB who is pro labor Chairmen Mark Pierce
will see his term expire. Then the Board will be 3/0 right wing Republican. Elections do have consequences .
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Oh no. Is there anything in civilization right now that’s not currently under right wing or neoliberal control?
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“Do as I say, not as I do.”
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Charter school names are supposed to be purpose-driven and aspirational.
Same for naming rights in federal legislation–No Child Left Behind Act, Every Student Succeeds Act, and right now, the Senate’s “Better Care Reconciliation Act” offering a huge tax break to the richest 400 people, written in secret and in the hope of scamming everyone.
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because we live in a world run by “them” and are looking through the glass…up is down, black is white
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I’m glad the effort is being made to unionize, especially when unions are in decline in most places. The firing of the teachers is hardly social justice, but that the union movement is springing up in an industry created to avoid unions – that’s poetic justice.
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They just wrote their epitath as a credible “social justice” leader. Doublespeak is hip now don’t ya know?
This reminds me. I’ve been wondering lately if the rise of “Rate My Teacher” website was coincidence or part of the union busting assaults…
Things that make you go Hmmmm
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Obama (Neo Liberal Democrats )
Why do I hate thee let me count the ways . But here is number one on the list . A bill that never made it out of committee when Democrats had a super majority in the Senate and control of the House .
The most vociferous Union buster in the country a man who took pride in decertifying more unions than anyone else in the country, was H. Wayne Huizenga . The former owner of the Dolphins and Waste Management . When asked on CNBC satirically what he thought of the legislation below . His response was ” Hell no we don’t want that , then they would all be union.”
“Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 – Amends the National Labor Relations Act to require the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to certify a bargaining representative without directing an election if a majority of the bargaining unit employees have authorized designation of the representative (card-check) and there is no other individual or labor organization currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit.
Sets forth special procedural requirements for reaching an initial collective bargaining agreement following certification or recognition.
Revises enforcement requirements with respect to unfair labor practices during union organizing drives, particularly a preliminary investigation of an alleged unfair labor practice (ULP) which may lead to proceedings for injunctive relief.
Requires that priority be given to a preliminary investigation of any charge that, while employees were seeking representation by a labor organization, or during the period after a labor organization was recognized as a representative until the first collective bargaining contract is entered into, an employer: (1) discharged or otherwise discriminated against an employee to encourage or discourage membership in the labor organization; (2) threatened to discharge or to otherwise discriminate against an employee in order to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of guaranteed self-organization or collective bardaining rights; or (3) engaged in any other related ULP that significantly interferes with, restrains, or coerces employees in the exercise of such guaranteed rights. ”
Sooner or later this will not end well, for somebody.
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Joel, I imagine you are familiar with Baby ALEC– the American City County Exchange. National and state-level attacks on unions make a lot of news, but ACCE works on city, county, municipal legislation. The ACCE is a division of the American Legislative Exchange Council.
“The Mission of American City County Exchange is to engage local elected officials and leaders from business and industry for the advancement of limited government and free market principles.”
Here is a model policy that makes collective bargaining by public employees “transparent.”
http://www.acce.us/model-policy/public-employee-bargaining-transparency-ordinance/
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I suppose you heard of the Romanov’s and this is just as likely to end there as anywhere else . It is important to remember as well that the Soviet Army was stood down by the drunken old mayor of Moscow. These things seldom end well for either side. But the over reach usually does end.
Roosevelt may have saved capitalism from itself by allowing the NLRA to be passed . It might be quite interesting to see where this ends when it is gone.
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Thanks for that info, Laura. Hadn’t heard of them!
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I truly despise the Koch Brothers and their agenda in all its iterations. In my state, labor negotiations are deemed to be exempt from FOIA because they are done in closed sessions.
If ALEC demands transparency for labor, then let’s have it for the purchase of real estate and for hiring, so that we can follow those money trails as well.
What’s that I hear from the Kochtopus? ……… crickets ….
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I call this “Irony Impairment Syndrome,” a malady that is far too common these days.
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Wait and see the union lose this fight. Didn’t they fire 1/2 the teachers in Newark’s Marion P. Thomas charter school last year? I wonder how many parents pulled their kids out. Not so easy to do when the reformers close public schools and replace with charters. They want charters to be the only game in town, so there’s your “choice” working for them.
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Reminds me of Catholic University of America and the other Catholic universities espousing social justice while taking strings-attached Koch money.
Reminds me of the oligarch-funded Public Agenda with the blurb at its site, “Building a Democracy That Works for Everyone”. Last year, the richest 1% shifted $4 tril. from the nation to themselves.
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Is this even legal? Can you fire people simply for wanting to join a union? I thought that there were both federal laws against such actions AND that the United States was a signer of several international agreements that guaranteed the right to organize one’s own workplace as a fundamental HUMAN RIGHT?
Beyond the obvious, yet still, astonishing action on the part of this “school” don’t they realize that there running their institution in a way that is contrary to ALL human rights efforts that were universally accepted since the end of World War II?
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The first time I heard the name of this charter school, I was skeptical. I wonder how quickly students there, and their parents, realized it really should have been called Charter High School For Bending the Law and Denying Social Justice, or if that is just dawning on them now.
Progressive Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) does a great job of revealing what’s been going on in what now effectively amounts to America Inc. He says euphemistic names like “People for Puppies and Prosperity,” are titles given to phony front groups by corporatists aiming to exert influence and conceal dark money. People have easily fallen for it, too. See his book, Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy
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Rhode Island has become a charter haven under Governor Gina Raimondo.
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I just read that Raimondo is a Democrat and also a Venture Capitalist. Sheesh!
How long before DINOs finally figure out that they have to stop being GOP lite if they want voter support from their base again?
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Raimondo’s husband roomed with Cory Booker in law school.
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Ah, that explains a lot, since Booker’s career masquerading as a Democrat was bankrolled by the right wing Bradley Foundation, so that the black community would be hoodwinked into getting on board with the GOP agenda to privatize public education. I wonder how many more infiltrators there are. Did the Joyce Foundation do the same thing with Obama?
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Gordon Lafer’s “One Percent Solution: How Corporations are Remaking America One State at a Time” also exposes the plot.
The richest 0.1% are the threat to the people’s sovereignty, about which Lincoln warned. They are traitors to the nation’s democracy.
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Linda,
Fantastic book!
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Maybe I just missed it but I recently learned that David Bossie, President and Chairman of the conservative advocacy group Citizens United, was Donald Trump’s Deputy Campaign Manager. Citizen’s United is the group responsible for the lawsuit against the FEC that resulted in the Supreme Court ruling basically that corporations are people too, which effectively enabled the 1% to buy elections with dark money.
Was this fact shouted from the rooftops repeatedly before the election? If that doesn’t clearly demonstrate, to anyone who couldn’t figure it before, that billionaire Trump’s primary allegiance is to his fellow 1%ers, not regular people, I don’t know what does. I wonder how many Trumpsters knew about this before they voted for him.
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Interesting info. but, I don’t think Trump voters would have cared. They listen to right wing propaganda and they were lashing out for change. Hillary’s message wasn’t a compelling message of opposition to a Presidency and Congress that allowed the 99% to be fleeced for the benefit of the rich. From the frying pan into the fire.
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Oh, come on!
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OMG. But not a surprise. Charter schools want sheep.
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