Teachers union gains a foothold in L.A.'s largest charter school group
For years, the possibility of organizing the employees of the largest charter school group in Los Angeles was an elusive goal for the teachers union. Efforts launched in 2015 sputtered out during an extended and expensive legal back-and-forth.
But on Wednesday, the movement appeared to get its momentum back.
Teachers at three charter schools operated by the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools network submitted paperwork to form a union and begin bargaining collectively. Though they make up a fraction of Alliance's total employees — the network runs 25 schools across L.A. — their actions represented a partial victory in the union's campaign to organize charter schools.
"These three schools, with more than 100 educators, are the first to file. Others in the 25-school charter chain are expected to follow," a spokesman for the union, United Teachers Los Angeles, wrote in a statement.
In a statement, Catherine Suitor, Alliance's chief advancement officer, said the group had "been made aware that some staff" at three schools had submitted cards to form a bargaining unit. She pointed out that Alliance has "more than 700 dedicated educators" at its schools.
"As always, we remain committed to making sure that all of [our] educator voices are heard and counted as this process moves forward," she said.
Attempts to unionize the Alliance schools began in earnest in 2015, when nearly 70 employees sent the group's administrators a letter asking to be allowed to organize without fear of retaliation. Alliance's leaders suggested they would not interfere.
But that early civility gave way to a series of disputes over whether UTLA organizers were being overly aggressive — as Alliance claimed — and whether Alliance's leaders were intimidating employees interested in joining — as the union maintained.
At one point, UTLA officials accused the charter group of using public funds to pay for lawyers and public relations consultants to fight off the unionizing effort. But a state audit later cleared Alliance of wrongdoing. It found that while Alliance had spent nearly $1 million to fend off the organizing push, it had raised the money from private donors and benefited from another $2 million in pro bono legal work.
UTLA officials said a "clear majority" of teachers and counselors at three Alliance schools submitted cards to the California Public Employment Relations Board on Wednesday morning, authorizing UTLA as their union. The schools are: Alliance College-Ready Middle Academy 5 in Lincoln Heights, Alliance Gertz-Ressler/Richard Merkin 6-12 Complex in downtown L.A., and Alliance Judy Ivie Burton Technology High School in South L.A.
"One of the reasons we made the decision to pursue this strategy was to kind of model for Continue reading: Teachers union gains a foothold in L.A.'s largest charter school group:
