Teachers and staff of City High and Paulo Freire charter schools sought voluntary recognition of their union at a governing board meeting Thursday, a move that comes after the board filed a legal challenge seeking to block their efforts.
The board listened to teachers and thanked them for their contributions to the Zoom meeting, but did not comment on the remarks.
“The recent unionization efforts are not driven by a need to retaliate, but rather give us a chance to look at how all members of this community can feel seen and heard for years to come,” City High art teacher Susan Whiting told the board.
About 40 teachers and staff serve about 285 students at three schools. They voted with a supermajority in December to form a union — at the CITY Center for Collaborative Learning, a nonprofit that includes City High and two middle schools:Paulo Freire Freedom School, University and Downtown campuses.
Later in December, the board hired employment law firm Littler Mendelson P.C. The nationwide firm, which has an office in Phoenix, has represented Starbucks and others to thwart unionization around the country, staff noted at Thursday’s meeting.
A petition filed earlier in January 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.
That argument could also affect Arizona’s first charter school union, formed at BASIS Tucson last fall. BASIS unionized in September, as part of AFT Local 6627, Arizona Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, part of the American Federation of Teachers.
The legal argument being put forth by [the CITY Center for Collaborative Learning] poses a threat not to just the brave workers at the CITY schools, but to all workers in Arizona and in the most extreme readings, to all non-for-profit employees across the nation,” said BASIS teacher Duncan Sohn Hasman, president of the new union. “Our reading is that if their filing were to be taken to the most extreme limits of its scope, 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 that would effectively quell our efforts across the state.”
Arizona charter teachers and staff cannot join another union, like the Tucson Education Association, because it does not allow charter members.
“Public school teachers can unionize, but the process is much more limited both in the process and in what you can ask for in bargaining,” Hasman said.
Two board members and the Littler Mendelson law firm have not responded to questions from Arizona Luminaria about potential unionization.
“So you can imagine the heartbreak, the pain, and the confusion when the board members of this wonderful organization began pursuing a frivolous legal argument that could strip charter school workers across the state of Arizona of their right to organize and form collective bargaining units and a contract with the school,” Downtown Paulo Freire humanities teacher Keegan Adams said.
The board has the option to voluntarily recognize the union, staff noted.
“I am here today to talk about solutions. This is what we teachers would like to see from you as the board at this time,” said City High English teacher Sophie Maloney to the board. “There are a variety of options that are significantly more collaborative approaches to the current legal case. The first and best option would be to voluntarily recognize our union.”
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