EduShyster here tells the sad story of the teachers at Urban Prep Academy in Chicago. They voted to form a union, and most of those who did were fired. Period.
This is the same charter school that Arne Duncan praised at the 20th anniversary celebration of Teach for America, where he claimed that replacing the entire staff had produced dramatically different results. Gary Rubinstein wrote about that speech here, and it turned out to be a defining moment for Gary, who turned against the “reform” charade.
EduShyster writes that
the teachers decided to form a union to redress what they saw as a serious problem: Urban Prep administrators’ lack of accountability to, well, anyone. So on June 3rd, a majority of teachers voted *yes* to having a union in a secret-ballot election. But instead of our story ending here, this is the point at which we stumble onto the treacherous shoals of labor law. You see, it took the Labor Board weeks to certify the results of the election due to large number of ballots that school administrators were contesting. And during this *grey area* period when the new union wasn’t yet officially official, Urban Prep fired sixteen teachers. Hows come? Well, because they could. Administrators are arguing that until the exact moment that the union becomes official, they are allowed to do whatever it is they feel like doing. Which would seem to be an example of exactly the kind of asshole-ish behavior that prompted teachers at the charter network to form a union in the first place.
In short order, 16 teachers were fired. 80% of them are African-American. The Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, which now represents teachers at Urban Prep, has filed unfair labor practices over the firings of all 16 teachers.
Incidents like this one reminds us of why workers formed unions long ago, and why corporate America is so eager to crush the last of them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charters notoriously brand themselves as at-will employers. I’ve seen that backfire on them, because teachers are as free to leave as a school is to dump them.
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And they aren’t AS “free will” employees? Minus an INDIVIDUAL contract, I’m not aware of anything stopping virtually any employee from terminating the employment relationship at any time – and for any reason – they may choose. It would be nice if employers consistently had the SAME ability to terminate that relationship. Unfortunately, they don’t. They’re stuck with paying people they’d just as soon not even see.
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They do have that ability, Ken. They just can’t do it for bullshit.
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Just a small change. It is called “Employment at will” that is practiced in the private sector which is a large fraction of the work force. Both sides, employee and the employer, have the same ability to terminate the employment at will.
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Just a little correction to may last post. The employer has to give 2 to 4 weeks pay to terminate an employee. The employee on the other hand may just stop coming to work at any time.
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Ken said: “They’re stuck with paying people they’d just as soon not even see.” So why did they hire those people in the first place? In NJ, there is a 4 year trial period for teachers and they can be fired for no reason or any reason.
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You are full of it, Raj. No employer gives notice of termination. They tell you (usually at 4:30ish) and they have a box of your stuff ready for you to walk out the door immediately afterwards.
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Ken talks as if those “poor” employers don’t have the upper hand and are totally bamboozled by those evil employees. Good jobs are no that easily found and an employee with many financial responsibilities is not likely to walk off a job willy nilly.
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Brian Harris;
Not sure where you picked up your “logic” at, but the fact that “[t]hey just can’t do it for bullshit” is about as an explicit declaration as can be made that they *DON’T* have “that ability”! Remember the declared boundaries of “ANY time” and “ANY reason”?
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Joe;
As an individual, are you fully aware of what an individual will turn out to be some years down the road on the basis of a few short exchanges? Obviously, employers don’t want to hire crap employees…and just as obviously, would-be employees tend to try to hide their faults until AFTER they’ve been hired. I’m not faulting them for that. I AM, however, faulting them for believing they have a continuing right to sponge wages off an entity that would much prefer they were not even around.
The employment process ought to be a two way street. As now, workers should be able to terminate their employment for any time and for any reason they choose. Correspondingly, employers should have exactly the same right. Not rocket science; just basic fairness.
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Ken I have no idea what you are talking about. unless you want to wilfully discriminate based upon racem religion, sex, or marital status you can fire any employee at any time for any legitimate reason, including not liking their work.
I am a small business owner. This is what the US Small Business Administration says about firing employees:
“Several blog posts on SBA.gov offer plenty of advice on how to hire, mentor, and motivate employees. We also frequently tackle the issue of dealing with difficult or disruptive employees. But what happens when you find yourself at the end of the road with no choice but to terminate an employee?
What steps must you take? What does the law require? What are the employee’s rights? What should you do about employee benefits and continuing health care coverage?
Doing everything right won’t always protect you from a lawsuit, but it will show that the termination was justified, legitimate, and handled within the law.
This blog post explains six essential things you need to know about firing employees within the law:
1. Understand the Employment at Will Policy
Every state (except Montana) gives employers the option of adopting an “at-will” employment policy, meaning that an employer may terminate any employee at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all. Sometimes employee agreements or contracts contradict the “at-will” policy, so check the wording to make sure where you stand.
2. Know When it’s Illegal to Fire an Employee
Your power to fire is not unlimited. Here are some things you can’t fire someone for:
Discrimination – Federal anti-discrimination law prevents employers from firing employees based on age, race, gender, religion or disability.
Whistleblowers – You can’t fire employees for complaining about any illegal activity, health and safety violations, or discrimination or harassment in the workplace. These statutes and laws vary by state, so check with a lawyer if, for example, you wish to fire someone who has complained or testified against you in court.
Exercising Legal Rights – You can’t fire employees for taking family or medical leave, military leave, time off to vote or serve on a jury.
3. Be Sure to Document Performance Issues
Despite the “at-will” policy, you should document instances of poor performance and tardiness, and maintain good records of employee performance reviews and any previous disciplinary interventions. This will provide legitimacy to your actions and prevent any complaints, lawsuits or accusations that termination was discriminatory. Protect yourself by retaining these records, even after the employee has left, and have a cheat sheet of documented performance lapses on hand to refer to during the termination meeting.
4. Understand Employee Rights – Benefits, Unemployment Insurance, 401ks
What benefits are your employees legally entitled to if they are fired or terminated? Here are the main benefits that employees may be entitled to if they are fired:
Continuation of Health Insurance Coverage – COBRA is a federal law that applies to employers with more than 20 employees. If these employers administer a group health plan, they are required to offer terminated employees, their spouses and dependents the option of temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates. If you have fewer than 20 employees, check with your state; some have comparable laws for smaller employers. Another caveat of COBRA is that terminated employees may be excluded from the plan if they were fired for “gross misconduct.” The law, however, doesn’t describe what is meant by “gross misconduct,” leaving it open to interpretation. This blog offers guidance on this matter: COBRA: What is “Gross Misconduct.”.As an employer, you can require individuals to pay the full cost of coverage, which can be significantly higher than group premiums.
How to Enroll Fired Employees in COBRA – You’ll need to notify your group health plan administrator within 30 days of firing or terminating your employee to kick start the COBRA process. You may even want to call in an outside HR firm to help you save time and confusion in the long term. SBA.gov also provides COBRA FAQs and more information here (scroll down).
Unemployment Insurance – It is your legal obligation to notify fired employees of their possible eligibility for unemployment insurance. By knowing their rights, employees are more likely to file a timely claim (and you can avoid being sued).
Vested Retirement Plans – Fired employees must remain eligible to receive vested 401(k), profit-sharing or pension benefits.
5. The Final Paycheck
Employers are not required by federal law to immediately give former employees their final paycheck. Some states, however, may require immediate payment, and are specific about what should be included in the final paycheck, such as accrued or unused vacation days. Contact your State Labor Office for information on employer requirements in your state. The Department of Labor also provides a Last Paycheck guide that explains applicable laws and regulations.
6. What About Severance Pay?
There is no requirement in the Fair Labor Standards Act that you provide severance pay. This is a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee. Read more from SBA.gov on how to handle severance pay.”
Teachers, like firefighters, police officers, and other groups usually work under an employment contract that specifies a procedure for firing. Unions don’t impose these cintracts; they must be negotiated and agred to by both management and the workers.
If business owners want something they usually get it. Many, if not most, now classify at least some workers as independent contractors or consultants so as tomavoid paying Social Security, taxes, insurance, sick leave, medical and life insurance, and overtime.
US businesses are enjoying historically high levels of profits and worker productivity while maintaining low wages and benefits, effectively eliminating the middle class.
This BS about businesses being overregulated and unable to make money is oure fiction pulled out of Milton Friedman’s err uh hat. Pure neoliberal drivel trumpeted on Fox Propaganda and by lots of conservatives under the pay of ALEC and the billionaire boys club.
Read the embarassing NYT piece by the former chair of Young and Rubicon and his poorly thought out Q&A with the unwashed masses. You’ll hear him say he’s worried about what is going to happento the obscenely rich like him but he poo poos any talk of raising his taxes and actually says the government should pay him to raise wages to a livable level. At least he realizes that when no one can afford to buy or rent ehat his class is selling then they too will begin to suffer.
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Chris;
I love your “logic” as well. You state….
“…you can fire any employee at any time for any LEGITIMATE [my emphasis added] reason, including not liking their work. ”
….after first refining it further with the conditional….
“Unless you want to wilfully discriminate based upon racem [sic] religion, sex, or marital status ”
…and then you go on a tirade explaining just what “legitimate” is [smile]
Here’s a news flash for ya’, Chris…ANY time for ANY reason means JUST THAT! And you know as well as I that, under today’s law, that simply isn’t possible….for reasons you went into great detail to explain.
You DO know what “ANY” means, don’t you? And, with that in mind, are you prepared to list the “legitimate” reasons non-contractual employees can have terminate the employer/employee relationship? Or, more to the point, what “legitimate reasons” PREVENT them from terminating that relationship? Think you could provide an equally long list of stipulations there as well? [smile]
Have a good one.
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Thanks Ken! I just wanted you to verify, in your own words, your racist, sexist, anti-semitic, anti-religious, anti-handicapped, anti-everyone stance.
You stated very clearly you support discriminating against certain classes of people just because you want to.
We as a society and the civilized world have agreed for a long time that this kind of libertarian wet dream is abhorrent and unacceptable.
The libertairian cheese stands alone and stinking.
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Raj said,
>Just a little correction to may last post. The employer has to give 2 to 4 weeks pay to terminate an employee.
Which means, this charter does not even meet the standard of business practice. Thanks for the tip!
That’s just as worse as notorious beauty clinic chain owned by Yuki Takano, who verbally intimidated one female employee[ pregnant, and working overtime under stress] by saying “Are you killing my company???”, and fired her for belonging to the union to ask for the improvement of working condition.
Way to go right-to-work employers! Perhaps these like-minded employers can even challenge Miki Watanabe, a one-man, self-centered czar of Japanese food industry conglomerate Watami group responsible for killing an employee due to excessive +150 hrs/month overtime work-related death.
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Chris;
This another example of your “logic” again? [smile] To wit: just WHERE and WHEN did I “verify”, in [my] own words [my] racist, sexist, anti-semitic, anti-religious, anti-handicapped, anti-everyone stance”?
Sorry, but simply pointing out the failure of YOUR “stance” (i.e.- claiming that ANYBODY can be fired for ANYTHING..and then pussy-footing around o essentially say that what you said was UNTRUE) is NOT quite the same as my “verifying” with my own words that I’m a racist, etc. Instead, what it seems occurred – as is the case with so many of those who hold your positions – that you jumped to conclusions, fabricated “facts”, and from them derived completely unreasonable assumptions. I.e. – you LIED!
Sorry, Sport..but it appears to me that what “stinks’ around here is your lying mouth!
Would good ol’ “Chris” be like that? N…a…a…h, not on his life! [grin!]. But, then again, your post is there. It says something. And what it “says” is about what YOU ARE! In any case, the next time you decide to fire from the hip and fabricate a call of someone being a “racist” and such, perhaps you should take a second and consider just what a dishonest piece of human filth you YOURSELF are. Sound like a plan?
Now what, Sport? Going to try to fabricate some more stuff out of the whole cloth? Or going to claim that something is “verified” simply because YOU claimed it to be so? What can we expect next from a “worthy” such as yourself? More “cheese”?
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Delusional, disgruntled,cynical, apathetic.
It’s kind of saying, “This is NOT discrimination. It’s rational distinction.”
You’re pretty much possessing the same level of idiocy with some people in my home country who justify racial profiling for ID checking, refusing entry, or promoting residential segregation of foreign nationals (YOU would also become a subject of racializing if you live there.)
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Teachers are free to leave but they don’t want bad evaluations and bad marks on their employment history. If they just walk out the door without any notice, it will count against them; they could be blackballed out of the teaching profession. Decent paying teaching jobs aren’t that available, depending on the location.
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Raj, in fact, has it exactly backward. In nearly every profession, you’d best give at least two weeks’ notice if you want good recommendations to continue working in the field. On the other hand, employers rarely give any notice when they terminate people.
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So true. Often, private sector terminations are handled in conference rooms as one surprise, crowd action, employees are escorted out by police or security, access is immediately removed to email and keypads, and references are not offered even if you walked on water. I’ve seen terminations done by cowardly mass email. There is no notice, no due process, nothing but an abrupt severing of all relationship.
Employers, on the other hand, actively blackball former employees even if a two week notice is given. Intellectual property and no compete clauses are unavoidable and restrict the ability of private sector employees to freely seek jobs. Companies will threaten legal action over alleged poaching of good employees.
It is a rigged system with all the competitive power with employers. So much for freedom or markets.
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That’s kinda’ the point of all this…and it points out that those that provide jobs are scarcer and (on a market basis) more valuable than those who are willing to work at them. It’s not a question of whether that’s “right” or not; rather, it’s simply a recognition of reality. Beyond that, it’s a reality a worker – in whatever field of endeavour – ignores at his peril. In the end, he/she has only ONE “customer”…and that’s the entity that did the hiring and pays the wages.
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Incredible, yet I’m sure they saw that coming. What could they have done differently?
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It’s not correct that most of the teachers who voted to form a union were fired. Urban Prep fired 16 teachers a few weeks after the union election — an illegal unilateral change in working conditions — and the workers fired were disproportionately union supporters (and Black). Prominent leaders of the organizing committee were fired for absurd or no reason — Brian from ChiACTS
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Sad situation – yes, another wreckage on the shoals of the “reform” movement.
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Welcome to 1930s America. Hard won workers rights are going down the tubes, both in private and public sectors, as fast as legislatures and industry can act. Parents have taken matters into their own hands via Opt Out. When will public school teachers begin their own resistance?
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There are good and decent people among the administrators of America, of course. People w/a moral compass and commitment to social justice. But organizations and corporations are amoral. There is no system that is protected from lousy or unethical leaders. And the corporate culture in this country has always been venal and brutal. Workers without protections legally or by associations are always at-risk. The history of unionism in teaching has many themes and plot lines, but the dominant one for me isn’t union abuses, irrespective of corporate & conservative anti-narratives, but the balancing of the of power to the extent that arbitrary and capricious board and district actions are diminished. I have to hope this act of administrative abuse is costly to this school. More lawyering to follow, ie.
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“I have to hope this act of administrative abuse is costly to this school.”
I hope it’s not. Costly to the school largely means costly to the students. You know if UP ends up having to pay a large fine, that money is going to come from public education dollars. It sure as hell isn’t going to come from Tim King’s personal bank account.
There need to be punishments for charters that violate the law other than monetary fines, considering that we the taxpayers are ultimately being stuck with the bill. Banning people responsible for abuses from being involved in a charter would be nice. Bringing charters under the public fold would be even nicer.
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Brian: forgive my ambiguity. I didn’t mean costly so much in a $$ as it sounded, but costly to its reputation or to attracting students & decent teachers or in many ways. I agree w/you re $$ verdicts vs schools generally, as $$ is always a zero sum game in education. Thnx for your observation
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“There are good and decent people among the administrators of America, of course. People w/a moral compass and commitment to social justice.”
And I can count all of them on my fingers and toes. And as soon as they actually stand up and do something, like let’s say send back all those tests and testing materials and instruct their teachers to teach in the best way the teachers know how those administrators will be let go just like those teachers who attempted to organize a union.
That’s why there are so few like you describe, Mike.
“But organizations and corporations are amoral.”
And that is the excuse that so many GAGA* adminimals give to justify their own part in the banal evils that are committed daily by those adminimals. NO ORGANIZATION/CORPORATION IS IMMORAL! It’s the “leaders”, the adminimals that are immoral and unethical. Typical excuse making for those adminimals lacking the cojones to actually stand up and do what’s right by the students.
*Going Along to Get Along (GAGA): Nefarious practice of most educators who implement the edudeformers agenda even though the educators know that those educational malpractices will cause harm to the students and defile the teaching and learning process. The members of the GAGA gang are destined to be greeted by the **Karmic Gods of Retribution upon their passing from this realm.
**Karmic Gods of Retribution: Those ethereal beings specifically evolved to construct the 21st level in Dante’s Hell. The 21st level signifies the combination of the 4th (greed), 8th (fraud) and 9th (treachery) levels into one mega level reserved especially for the edudeformers and those GAGAers, who, knowing the negative consequences of the edudeformers agenda, willing implemented it so as to go along to get along. The Karmic Gods of Retribution also personally escort these poor souls, upon their physical death, to the 21st level unless they enlighten themselves, a la one D. Ravitch, to the evil and harm they have caused so many innocent children, and repent and fight against their former fellow deformers. There the edudeformers and GAGAers will lie down on a floor of smashed and broken ipads and ebooks curled in a fetal position alternately sucking their thumbs to the bones while listening to two words-Educational Excellence-repeated without pause for eternity.
(Too bad that last paragraph is figurative and not really true!)
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Data is used a lot to as proof for one’s belief in a concept they hold dear. Trouble is that data can be used to show any “research” that a person wants to promote. For ten years we had a principal that would use “data” to prove the success of a particular program that he championed at our school. Never mind that it never achieved the purpose that it was first presented for the “data” should that it was working. When others would present other “data” that challenged the perception or would interpret the “data” in a contrary way, he would just ignore them or indicate that they don’t have the whole “data”. That’s the very way people use “data” is to not show the whole data. For example when Duncan said that 107 graduated from the charter school, he was giving enough data to accomplish his goal. Was he lying? Technically no, but by not giving the whole realm of data he was deceiving at the very least. It is possible to show that a particular running back on a football team is the best because he might have a 10 yard per carry average, but perhaps he only ran 1 time for 10 yards. While another running back gets 5 yards per carry but has run the ball for 200 times getting 1000 yards total. Which is the better running back? Duncan left out that there were 166 students to start with. His silence about that probably caused those that want to support him or didn’t know how to check his data to believe that it was 100% of the students in that class that graduated. No mention whether any or all of these students were on track to graduate while they were at their old high school. No mention of any “student growth” by these students like we as teachers have to show on our TPEP evaluation system here in Washington. Why is it that he can use partial “data” to prove his worth while we teachers are held to a “standard” of having to prove our “effectiveness” as teachers by showing “student growth” from one point in tie to another. Data mean nothing because people use only what gives them what they want.
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Charter schools are solely intended to turn a profit and for some charter school operators the payoff is astounding. As you read this article about one of those operators and the mansion he built, keep reminding yourself that it’s all about the kids.
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/local/north-end-mansion-listed-at-845m/nkhyf/#cmComments
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Speaking of charter school operators destroying public education and teachers unions while, themselves, living high off the hog, at least one governor, Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, “gets it”, and is trying against tremendous odds to save the public schools and put a stop to the gravy train.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20150819_Wolf_challenges_charter_school_funding_in_Delco_district.html
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Here’s a great video that covers this:
I’ve been following this. As your article says, after a brutal but ultimately successful battle on the part of Urban Prep teachers to form a union—supported in spirit by the Chicago Teacher’s Union—King retaliated by firing not just the organizers, but teachers who merely voted for unionization.
The teachers and CTU are protesting that those teachers be re-hired, as their firing was illegal.
Also, George Schmidt’s SUBSTANCE covered this as well:
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=5798§ion=Article
Larry Duncan at “SUBSTANCE”:
“Although the actions of Urban Prep chief Tim King is illegal under Illinois labor law, King’s publicity machine continues to get favorable press for King and Urban Prep, despite the facts.
“A letter addressed to Urban Prep Board Chairman Joseph McCoy, demanding that the charter school network hire back the 16 fired teachers, was personally delivered by a delegation from the assembly to the Bryan Cave Law Firm in Chicago’s Loop, where McCoy is managing partner and where the protest took place.
“The employer cannot legally make significant changes to working conditions without consulting with the union, without negotiating,” explained Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff President Brian Harris. “Certainly, firing fifteen percent of their staff is a significant change in working conditions. And this is the law. They cannot do that. And they certainly cannot do it to punish people for forming a union. A charter operator, a recipient of tens of millions of dollars from the taxpayers, charged with educating hundreds of Chicago students, needs to have much more of a commitment to following the law than Urban Prep management has.”
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These charters are facades of Corporate America that drives national economy to crony capitalism.
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