This just in:
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES
ADVISORY FOR THURSDAY, APRIL 28
On-site Contact
Rosalina Cardenas
C: 213-280-1144
E: rosalina@cardenasgroup.net
Follow Up ContactGlenn Goldstein
Organization & Field Services, AFT
C: 510-735-4815
E: ggoldste@aft.org
Charter educators to strike on Thursday, April 28, as management continues to deny right to unionize
Educators demand Alliance College-Ready Public Schools begin negotiations on the educators’ first contract after three years and multiple PERB violations
Educators at four Alliance College-Ready charter schools will be going on a one-day Unfair Labor Practice strike on Thursday, April 28, in response to the Alliance Board of Directors continued refusal to negotiate the educators’ first contract after multiple orders by the Public Employment Relations Board to bargain.
WHAT: One-day Unfair Labor Practice strike
WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, April 28, 2022
· MAIN EVENT (rally with speakers, followed by march) — 11:30 a.m.
2301 S Union Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007 (MAP)
· Picketing starts at 7:15 a.m. Main picket location is Gertz-Merkin 6-12.
2023 S Union Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007
WHO: Teachers, counselors, and education professionals from Alliance College-Ready charter schools, and rally speakers (below).
· Emcees: Brittany Cliffe and Erin Belefski (UTLA Alliance educators)
· Jamie Garcia, UTLA Alliance educator from Burton Tech High School
· Jackie Goldberg, LAUSD School Board Member District 5
· Gloria Santos & Manuela Chaidez, parents of Alliance students
· Ron Herrera, President of the LA County Federation of Labor
· Jeff Freitas, President of California Federation of Teachers
· Cecily Myart-Cruz, President of UTLA
VISUALS: Strike picket signs, banners, educators leafleting the community, rally, speakers, DJ, march after rally to school for afternoon picket.
A supermajority of educators at the four Alliance charter schools (Alliance Burton Tech, Alliance Gertz-Merkin, Alliance Leichtman Levine Family Foundation ESAT, and Alliance Morgan McKinzie High School) voted to unionize over three years ago with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). Since that time educators have gone on multiple occasions to the Alliance Board of Directors to get the board to begin negotiations, but they have refused to bargain.
On February 28, 2022, the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) announced that Alliance College-Ready Public Schools is in violation of the Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA) for refusing to bargain with educators and once again ordered Alliance to negotiate.
However, the schools’ leadership have yet to meet with the educators to negotiate for their contract.
Teachers, counselors, psychologists, and parents at the schools are coming together to ensure the highest quality of education at Alliance. Educators love their schools and students, and they believe that — through the collective voice that union membership and the bargaining process provides — they can advocate for small class sizes, teacher and counselor recruitment and retention, health and safety, and a commitment to social, emotional, and educational support for students that will help build the schools Alliance students need and deserve.
###
About Alliance Educators United
Alliance Educators United is a movement of dedicated and passionate teachers, counselors, and education professionals in the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools committed to fulfilling the mission and vision of a college-ready education for all Alliance students. We are forming a union with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) to have a collective and effective voice in the decision-making processes at our Alliance schools.
About UTLA
United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is 35,000 educators in Los Angeles dedicated to quality public education
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Alliance College-Ready Public Schools” and/or “Alliance College-Ready charter schools”
I have no doubts that this title for these charter schools is another misleading load of crap.
What does “college-ready” mean, that these charter schools are “college ready” and/or the students are all guaranteed to be “college ready”?
And why does this charter school have “Public Schools” as part of its title? BS!
I smell a law suit in the making. If even one student that attends these schools goes to college and isn’t ready, sue them for ever penny they already stole from the pulbic.
Alliance should also be sued for using “Public Schools” as part of its misleading title.
it still blows my mind that charter schools are even still allowed to operate given the mountain ranges of evidence of fraud as well as other kleptocratic and malfeasant behavior. And yet pols still parrot them as the “cure” for our “failing schools.” I deplore social media, however to riff upon Martin Gurri’s analysis in “The Revolt of the Public,” of what social media has done to our information ecosystem (the near-destruction of authoritative, vertically integrated, hierarchical information distribution), it’s a necessary tool for public educators to gain some control over the narrative of the education war. D, I remember you going on CNN some years ago during the last major offensive by the Establishment to “charterize” our public schools and the anchor used one example of a handwritten assignment that had poor grammar and spelling to speak for the entirety of America’s public schools. Kudos to you for pointing out to the anchor that it was a sample from a student living in poverty who attended a low-income, urban school district, which basically had no support. Our nation’s corporate media tried to shape the narrative but thanks to you, you sabotaged what CNN was aiming to do. Conflict and controversy sells, truth for a better understanding of our world for better tomorrow sells very little. Thank for standing up for said truth.
As Chris Rufo said, “Frame the narrative and you win.” No matter whether it’s true or false.
Good for the charter school teachers in Los Angeles that have called a strike in order to be treated more fairly. In a strange way if enough charter school teachers strike, it will serve to end the idealized delusion of non-union schools where workers have no rights. It may serve to diminish some of that charter school zeal fueled by being able to treat teachers like powerless drones. It could serve to take some the wind out of the sails of the privatization pirates. Workers generally do not want to strike, but they will do it if they feel it is their only way to be heard.
Godspeed, esteemed colleagues.
Amen
The Deformers/Disruptors have to hate this! One of the points of the drive for charter schools and voucher programs is to end union representation in schools. As you doubtless know, the attempt by oligarchs to end union membership in the United States has been so successful that now only about 11 percent of workers nationwide are unionized, and most of those are in government jobs. Schools are one of the last bastions of unionization, and U.S. oligarchs hate that. As of the 2014-15 school year, 72.7 percent of traditional public-school teachers nationwide were unionized. Only 24 percent of charter-school teachers were. (Source: National Center for Education Statistics, National Teacher and Principal Survey). So, this strike is good news indeed. I hope it will be a model for other charter-school teachers nationwide!
Fire em all on the spot!
The national media should add charter chains to the discussion of union activism that is sweeping the country in businesses like Starbucks and Amazon.