New Union Charts Fresh Course for Educators

5   <div class="column span-15 small quiet"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/cdnassets/assets/7636/charter_col15.jpg" alt="" style="width: 590px;" /> Matt Karlan teaches a math class at the Chicago International Charter School's Ellison campus Credit: Adrian G. Uribarri</div> The battle began in Chicago, continued in Springfield and wound up in Washington. Now, it has come to a close. About a year after they began a unionizing effort, teachers at the Chicago International Charter School finally have a contract with administrators. They were the first charter-school teachers to form a union in the city, and their labor group, the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, or A.C.T.S., represents a growing battleground for labor activists around the United States. Charter schools are public schools that are exempt from some Chicago district policies. Once isolated from the influence of unions, they are quickly becoming recruiting havens for educational labor organizers. In their view, the new Chicago union is a model for collaboration between organized labor and administrators at the schools. “Do we want to build on it? Clearly,” says Gail Purkey, spokeswoman at the Illinois Federation of Teachers. “This is groundbreaking and significant. It sort of sets the tone for how things could work at other charter schools.” Purkey’s view reflects how labor leaders across the nation are trying to enlarge their ranks within charter schools rather than resist them. Historically, teachers’ unions have been at odds with charter schools, viewing them as a threat to student enrollment at traditional public schools and therefore a menace to jobs for unionized teachers. Now, thanks to federal support, the schools are sprouting up so quickly that union leaders cannot ignore them. In April, when the Chicago teachers announced their plan to unionize, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten got behind them, giving a rousing speech to delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union. Last week, she called their contract “a recognition that schools will work better for kids when labor and management work together. Charter school teachers, like all other public school teachers, want the ability to contribute to student success at their school.” Chicago A.C.T.S. was also a chance for labor leaders to test the boundaries of charter-school policy. While union organizers initially certified their bargaining unit with a state labor board that oversees public schools, executives at Chicago International Charter School prevailed in their argument that the case belonged in the National Labor Relations Board, which governs the private sector. As they saw it, CICS is a private institution because it is has a private board of directors, despite receiving millions of dollars of taxpayer money annually. Ultimately, however, the teachers earned recognition for a union from both the state and national boards, allowing them to launch negotiations in July and finalize a contract in late October. They also received the backing of state legislators, who passed a law that explicitly names the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board as the proper jurisdiction for similar cases. That board is seen as friendlier to unions since it allows teachers to join a bargaining unit simply by signing a membership card, rather than by holding a ballot election. CICS Chief Executive Officer Simon Hess joined the school shortly before teachers went public with their union drive in April. He supported a ballot election certified by the NLRB, arguing that allowing teachers to take ballots home allowed them greater privacy in electing a union. When the ballots returned, 73 teachers voted for the union, and 49 against it. Hess says that since then, negotiations with the teachers’ union have been productive. Still, he characterized the union drive as an unnecessary and expensive venture. Direct negotiations with teachers would have yielded similar working conditions, he says. “It would have been a lot cheaper for both sides,” Hess says. “There wouldn’t have been so many attorneys or negotiators involved.” Emily Mueller, who headed the teachers’ negotiating committee, disagrees. She says the negotations were amicable, and that the union was instrumental in securing a transparent wage scale, class-size limits and a voice in curricular changes. According to the union, the contract includes raises that range from 4.2 to 25.4 percent in the first year of teachers’ contracts, and raises of up to 10.55 percent in the second and third years, as well as additional merit pay. Mueller says such conditions are a stark contrast from the situation last year, when she says administrators forced teachers to teach six periods instead of their regular five, without offering them a raise. “I don’t think we would have gotten a seat at the table, period, if it hadn’t been for the union,” Mueller says.

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NewUnionChartsFreshCourseforEducators

1 About a year after they began a unionizing effort, teachers at the Chicago International Charter School finally have a contract with administrators. Charter schools represent a growing battleground for labor activists around the United States.

New Union Charts Fresh Course for Educators

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