Teachers union starts legal battle to unionize L.A.’s largest charter school group

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Los Angeles Daily News

By Thomas Himes

United Teachers Los Angeles has brought its fight to unionize the city’s largest charter school organization to the state’s top labor authority.

In a complaint filed Monday evening, the teachers union alleges Alliance College-Ready Public Schools has interfered with efforts to unionize more than 500 teachers.

Los Angeles-based Alliance’s 26 campuses are located in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, south and east of downtown. Earlier this year, Los Angeles Unified’s school board approved Alliance plans to open a 27th campus in Sun Valley for 1,050 students in grades 6 through 12.

The teachers union wants California’s highest labor authority, the Public Employment Relations Board, to issue an order stopping Alliance officials from their alleged anti-union activities.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://www.dailynews.com/social-affairs/20150408/teachers-union-starts-legal-battle-to-unionize-las-largest-charter-school-group/2

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. K and R. Where are local elected DEMs on this issue?

i.e. Brown, et al?

Alas. We KNOW where the nat'l DEMs are.

[dpatbrown]

2. Real objective

Last edited Thu Apr 9, 2015, 09:37 AM - Edit history (1)

Just retired from 26 years of teaching in public schools. Don't be mislead. Charter schools were established for one reason-break the UNIONS.

[Larry Engels]

4. "Don't be mislead"?

Well, teach, you can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.

[turbinetree]

3. Right to Work

Again these firms that do want human beings to organize into a 50+1 majority for representation are being subjected to the discriminatory practices of what we in the unions call Right to Work for Less and the Taft-Hartley Act.

The history of this has not changed since the 1930's and this is why Taft-Hartley needs to be repealed-----now.

[radhika]

5. LA is awash in charter schools - virtually all local officials play along...

I've been an education activist for several years in Los Angeles. I was a former Adult Ed teacher in LAUSD and a member of UTLA. I assure you the region's educational assets are being gobbled up by politically-connected charter chains and ed corporations such as Pearson.

Credentialed teachers are being pushed out and replaced by less trained and poorly paid employees. Controlling teacher salaries, benefits and work hours is Mission #1 for corporate ed. Hedge funders have been circling this bundle of public cash for years, and they lather at the prospect of driving those salaries down. And silencing the insurgents.

CA has the greatest number of charter schools in the USA. LA County has nearly 25% of them. LA City mayors are often big investors supporters of charter schools - e.g., Reardon, Villaraigosa for starters. By law, district public schools are REQUIRED to make 'unused' classroom space available to accommodate charters. The definition of 'unused' can be creative according to some teachers I've interviewed: Say goodbye to dance, study or lab space. Co-location strategy sometimes ends up with multiple schools operating on one campus - each with barriers and separate entry points and carving out times to use common areas. So much for school spirit!

The recently-ousted Superintendent of LAUSD John Deasy was a product of Eli Broad's Academy - a billionaire developer and art collector who clearly wants to see the end of public education. Deasy got trounced due to his astonishingly corrupt and clueless purchase of $1 billion worth of outdated i-Pads by redirecting construction and repair bond money to this project. At the same time, he was allowing teachers/nurses/librarians to be laid off and the school repairs to be deferred. Not incidentally, Pearson software giant was in position to profit up on that contract by installing incomplete and partial software on those devices.

Other tech or real estate billionaires (or their spouses) have played major roles in CA charter initiatives over the years. They write them, basically. And they organize the signature gathering campaigns to get them on the state ballot. T

LA's School Board elections attract a lot of corporate money that somehow finds itself going more toward privatizers favorites. I strongly oppose public assets being handed off to private corporations. Still, if UTLA can unionize the charter teachers - hey, might be a good thing overall.

It would cut into the profit margins of charters. It would protect income and conditions for the teachers. It would strengthen the voice of labor. And it could bring in some much needed dues money for a strike fund.

I'm following this closely.