Unions Eye L.A. Charter Schools
Efforts to organize teachers in the country’s largest system could have nationwide repercussions
As teachers unions ramp up efforts to organize the fast-growing charter school movement, one of the biggest and most contentious fights is taking place at a chain of schools in Los Angeles.
In March, 70 teachers at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, the city’s largest charter system with 26 schools and more than 600 teachers, announced they wanted to join United Teachers Los Angeles, the 31,000-member union that represents all of the city’s public school teachers and about 1,000 teachers at 12 independent charter schools.
Alliance officials counter that being free of union rules has helped their charter schools operate with greater flexibility and smaller class sizes and ultimately send 95% of graduates to college each year. They also question why a union fighting the expansion of charter schools wants to organize charter teachers.
“They spent the last 10 years saying how terrible charters are when we’ve been trying to educate poor kids and have been doing a great job at it,” said Catherine Suitor, a spokeswoman for Alliance. “What is it they’re trying to fix?”
The unionization campaign, currently the largest at a U.S. charter school system, could have wide repercussions A union win could validate a new wave of organizing drives at charter schools in Colorado, Michigan, Ohio and other states. A protracted campaign that doesn’t go anywhere would be a costly and demoralizing defeat for unions.
The Los Angeles union, which is affiliated with the nation’s two biggest teachers unions—the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers—has so far not said whether it wants to organize the teachers through an election or an alternative process.
A quarter of the Alliance teachers have signed a public letter supporting the union and asking the charter system to remain neutral.
Tensions have grown in recent weeks amid charges from teachers that administrators have illegally intimidated them, which Alliance denies.
On Oct. 29, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted a temporary restraining order sought by the union, and ordered Alliance administrators to stay 100 feet away from union organizers and not coerce or threaten teachers for participating in union Unions Eye L.A. Charter Schools - WSJ:
