The CTU New Organizing Committee met with charter school educators interested in unionizing. CTU members at Aspira are strategizing how to deal with colocation efforts. Acero Sped and ELL educators participated in a Know Your Rights training and are beginning to reach out to parents. Negotiations on our first contract with Epic are expected to begin after Thanksgiving
CPS has refused to bargain with the CTU over remote learning or return to in-person school, but educators in Los Angeles have been properly engaged by their school management. Maybe it’s because Los Angeles has an elected school board. Or, maybe, officials there realize you cannot run a school system without the workers.
Instead of honoring PSRPs’ right to a safe workplace, Lightfoot and the Board are defying an arbitrator’s ruling as well as the mayor’s own public health guidance to compel these PSRPs to work in unsafe buildings when they could be working remotely.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot won’t lay out public health criteria for proposed return in January as daily COVID-19 infection average tops 2,300 — nearly six times higher than the district’s remote learning cut-off of 400 per day in July.
An independent arbitrator found that school buildings are unsafe and ordered that clerks and other staff should be allowed to work remotely at least four days a week. But the mayor decided she’s above the law and refused to abide by that ruling.
“Save Our Clerks” campaign to assist workers with basic needs is yet another example of educators and labor coming together to fill in gaps where others have fallen short.
Namaste is the latest charter school to experience a COVID-19 outbreak. After months of negotiations, and a request for a mediator, we are seeing progress in CICS-Civitas talks. Instituto Health and Science Career Academy is hiring a psychologist to comply with the CTU contract. Three laid off special education apprentices have been recalled at Acero, after members organized against the layoffs.
The 2020 LSC elections are taking place during report card pick-up for elementary on Wednesday, November 18 and for high school on Thursday, November 19 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. This election has obviously been hampered by the COVID-19 crisis, but CPS has also not handled it well.
In a 38-page final order, the independent arbitrator ruled that CPS clerks and other staff cannot be forced to work in unsafe buildings. We will be holding an emergency meeting with school clerks, technology coordinators and other rank-and-file members impacted by the arbitration opinion very soon.
