An update from your union officers.
HTEC Members,
Earlier this week, in consultation with attorneys from the California Teachers Association, we made the decision to file an unfair labor practice (ULP) charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board regarding the CMO’s failure to follow state law as it relates to bargaining in good faith.
Last Wednesday marked exactly one year since we announced our intent to form our Collective as a way for educators to unify and advocate for what we believe is needed from HTH to allow us to thrive as professionals and continue to provide the high-quality project-based learning that attracted many of us to HTH in the first place.
From the moment we unionized, the goal of HTEC members has been to quickly and efficiently bargain a first union contract that meets the needs identified and supported by members so that we can focus on what matters most, our students and their education.
Sadly, over the course of the past year, we have come to realize that the HTH CMO does not share this vision with us.
We requested recognition of our union in April. The CMO didn’t drop their opposition and agree that we had supermajority support until August.
We “sunshined” our bargaining priorities in October. (This is the official step of publically presenting priorities before beginning negotiations.) The CMO waited until December.
We started asking to calendar bargaining dates immediately after we sunshined. The CMO’s first availability came in January.
We presented a proposal on salary at our very first bargaining session. Despite being told multiple times that the CMO was working on a counterproposal–and despite the rationale for the lack of a proposal changing multiple times–we are nearly 4 months into bargaining without a response.
We have asked for additional bargaining dates and for longer bargaining sessions so that we can work on bridging the gap between the sides through meaningful dialogue. The CMO has declined, offering no more than one 6-hour session and one 2.5-hour session a month.
While the CMO’s words about valuing educators continue, their actions say otherwise.
At this point, we feel there is no other option than to use the legal avenues available to our members to push the CMO to bargain meaningfully and in good faith.
Specifically, the ULP focuses on four key issues we believe violate state law:
- The CMO unilaterally increased the salary of roughly half of HTEC members to avoid a legal requirement to pay them overtime for work beyond 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. Under state law, salary is a mandatory subject of bargaining that the CMO cannot change without bargaining. For many of the nearly 200 educators who received the increase, the option to receive overtime pay would have resulted in higher earnings. We have the right to bargain over pay and we believe, given the opportunity to have a voice in how the overtime exemption is applied, members may have chosen a different route.
- Despite not reaching agreement on a disciplinary process, the CMO has issued discipline to several teachers. Discipline is also a mandatory subject of bargaining, and the policies that existed at the time of forming HTEC clearly give discretion for how discipline is implemented. We have a right to bargain over this discretion to create a fair process prior to discipline being issued.
- HTH’s December board meeting included an agenda item for the application of an Educator Effectiveness grant proposal through the state. During the meeting, board members asked CMO staff if the funding could be used for training and/or providing compensation for educators, which was confirmed. Following the meeting, we notified the CMO that we intended to exercise our right to bargain over how that grant funding would impact wages, benefits and working conditions. The CMO refused.
- For several months we have been pushing the CMO to take bargaining seriously. We have been told to be patient. We have been given excuses for why they have struggled with the process. By law, they are supposed to be our partners in creating a contract. Instead, one side has pushed and the other has deflected. Our students and educators cannot wait any longer and expect the CMO to bargain in good faith.
Up to this point, we’ve taken the CMO at their word that they want to do what is right for educators and bargain a contract that shows they value us. We believe there are good people in the CMO, and we believe they mean what they say.
However, we have reached a point where we must decide if we are going to continue waiting for something that may never come, or if we are going to push the CMO to back up their platitudes with action.
Under state law, violations such as these have a six month statute of limitations. Failure to initiate the legal process now could result in an inability to address them later. As your elected officers of HTEC, we believe we cannot wait any longer and must stand up for ourselves and take action.
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