The staff and teachers at City High and Paulo Freire Schools are allowed to unionize, according to a federal ruling on Friday — paving the way for more charter schools in Arizona to form unions.
The ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, says the group — about 40 teachers and staff that serve about 285 students at three schools — can hold an election and vote on whether to unionize even though the Board of Directors stalled their efforts earlier this year. The election is set for May 19, which is graduation day at City High School.
“In unionizing, we’re hoping to build a stronger and more resilient community among staff. We are saving our concrete asks for the bargaining table, but forming our union gives us more safety to be able to continue doing our jobs in the immediate future,” said Haley Odom-Mackey, a City High algebra teacher.
Employees at the CITY Center for Collaborative Learning — a nonprofit that includes City High and two middle schools, Paulo Freire Freedom School’s University and Downtown campuses — voted by a supermajority in December to form a union.
But teachers say they were not represented nor allowed to participate in decision-making and were denied time on a meeting agenda. The nonprofit’s Board of Directors hired employment law firm Littler Mendelson P.C., a nationwide firm that has an office in Phoenix and has represented Starbucks and others to thwart unionization around the country.
A CITY board member and the Littler Mendelson law firm have not responded to questions from Arizona Luminaria about the ruling and potential unionization.
A petition filed on behalf of the CITY Center for Collaborative Learning, says charter schools are recognized as public schools in Arizona and the National Labor Relations Board does not have authority over public employers.
But the NLRB rejected that legal argument.
“These Employer arguments are unavailing,” said Cornele Overstreet, the Phoenix Office regional director of the National Labor Relations Board.
The CITY board does not cite any precedent or case law to support its assertions, the 24-page ruling says.
CITY has 10 days to appeal the ruling after the May 19 election, said Justine Sleator, who works for the Arizona Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff.
The ruling opens the door for employees of other Arizona charter schools to follow the same process. Because charter schools are not closely enough connected to state government, they are allowed to unionize, the ruling says.
Nonprofit employees, like those in most Arizona charter schools, watched the case closely. Among the concerns was “charter school teachers would not be able to collectively bargain and would be subject to much more difficult and prohibitive unionization efforts under the public employee designation (and) that would effectively quell our efforts across the state,” BASIS teacher Duncan Sohn-Hasman told Arizona Luminaria earlier this year.
BASIS was the first charter in Arizona to unionize, last September. The CITY schools would be the second. The schools will be part of AFT Local 6627, Arizona Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, part of the American Federation of Teachers.
Arizona charter teachers and staff cannot join another union, like the Tucson Education Association, because it does not allow charter school members.
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