Mixed ruling on claims Alliance charter school leaders obstructed teachers union organizing
Did Los Angeles' largest chain of charter schools attempt to bust its teachers' efforts to unionize? Yes and no, a judge has ruled.
On one hand, Administrative Law Judge Kent Morizawa found administrators at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools acted unlawfully when they blocked teachers union organizers from two campuses and redirected the union's emails to teachers' spam folders for a time.
But in his decision last Friday, he also ruled that three written communications Alliance leaders sent to the charter networks' teachers and parents — all of which criticized the union in the midst of the organizing effort — were in-bounds.
Both the union and the charter network's leaders found something to like in Morizawa's ruling for the state's Public Employment Relations Board.
Representatives of the union, United Teachers Los Angeles, cheered Morizawa's ruling that Alliance's central office, which oversees a network of 27 schools, is subject to state labor laws just like its individual schools — a point the charter network's leaders had disputed.
That portion of the ruling is "absolutely precedent-setting," said attorney Jesús Quiñonez, who represents UTLA. "It’s a major issue with respect to charter schools and labor relations in California."
But while Morizawa ordered the charter network to "cease and desist" from violating those labor laws, Alliance spokesperson Catherine Suitor said Tuesday Mixed ruling on claims Alliance charter school leaders obstructed teachers union organizing | 89.3 KPCC:
