UNO charter schools to allow teachers to join a union
Source: Chicago Sun Times
One of the largest charter school operators in Chicago, the politically influential United Neighborhood Organization, has agreed to allow teachers at its schools join a union.
The move represents a sharp change in stance for UNO CEO Juan Rangel, a co-chairman of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2011 campaign who strongly criticized the Chicago Teachers Union for going on strike last year and ran radio ads during the strike noting that its nonunionized schools weren’t affected.
Rangel’s newly forged deal with the Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, known as Chicago ACTS, comes a month after the Chicago Sun-Times reported that UNO had spent millions of dollars from a state school-construction grant to pay contractors with ties to the group.
Chicago ACTS currently has members in only 14 charter schools but would grow dramatically if the teachers at UNO’s 13 schools choose to join them.
Read more: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/18717518-418/teachers-at-uno-charter-schools-to-join-union-labor-leaders-say.html
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http://schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com/2013/01/anti-union-nlrb-ruling-confirms-that.html
Thursday, January 3, 2013
snip: WBEZ reports:
The ruling made by the National Labor Relations Board last month, said the Chicago Math and Science Academy is a “private entity” and therefore covered under the federal law governing the private sector. The decision overrules a vote taken by teachers last year to form a union in accordance with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. At the time, two-thirds of teachers at the school approved the union and it became official under state law.
