AFL-CIO Backs R.I. Teachers; Union Files Labor Complaint
AFT President Randi Weingarten continues to call in the big guns on this Rhode Island school-turnaround drama. Now the AFL-CIO, the labor association that AFT (but not the National Education Association) belongs to, has put out this statement in support of the teachers.
The local teachers' union, meanwhile, has filed an unfair labor-relations complaint with the state labor-relations board, saying that Superintendent Frances Gallo didn't bargain in good faith with the union, The Associated Press reports. AP also says that the union claims that the teachers haven't been proven incompetent or accused of malfeasance.
I'm no lawyer, so I can't tell whether the terms of the school-improvement grant program can legally overrule state or local contractual language on dismissals. Any federal-education legal scholars care to weigh in?
On another note, Washington Post scribe Jay Mathews sides with Weingarten,