Intercepts
A listening post monitoring public education and teachers’ unions.

It isn’t all cakes and ale within the Los Angeles labor movement. SEIU added eggs and whipped gently.

On Tuesday, I relayed the tale of a dispute between SEIU and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) over the latter’s support of a rival union – the National Union of Healtcare Workers (NUHW), which was once part of SEIU. (Don’t worry if you don’t have a scorecard. You’ll get the idea.)

Well, UTLA hosted a labor forum about NUHW, and SEIU bused in a few hundred protesters. Labor Notes reports:

The SEIUers chanted, beat on drums, and threw eggs and water bottles in an unsuccessful effort to intimidate people from attending…. The forum was held at the headquarters of the Los Angeles Teachers union (UTLA). Josh Pechthalt, UTLA vice president, said he was glad the teachers union had hosted NUHW, despite threats by SEIU that there would be “war” if UTLA hosted the event. SEIU threatened to come after charter school teachers UTLA is trying to organize, according to Pechthalt. UTLA refused to buckle, and the room burst into applause.

The ¡Adios, Andy! blog posted an e-mail from a forum attendee:

Another brillant move: one of the “guests” who was egged was the vice president of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), one of the largest unions in Southern California that hosted the event at their union hall. The zombies were relegated to the side walk down the street from the main entrance to the building, and police tape blocked them from picketing in front of the actual entrance. They did have blaring lights that they flashed from the distance as people were walking in.

I find it hard to believe that in this day and age there is no video of any of this. What do you say, participants? YouTube is free.

The Oregon-Davis school district will join the class action lawsuit against the Indiana State Teachers Association insurance trust in an attempt to recover more than $300,000 in funds.

“We’ve been trying to get cooperation from NEA leadership, and they have not followed through with meetings and have not answered our questions, so we’re looking at other channels to remedy the situation,” said Superintendent Steve Disney.

NEA administrator Edward Sullivan, who is running ISTA in the aftermath of the trust’s failure, sent a memo to all districts involved with the trust that contained a proposed blanket settlement in which “the trust would pay some amount of money to the school corporation claimants. These amounts would be financed by interest-free loans to the ISTA.”

Disney thinks NEA is trying to take him for a ride. “NEA has a lot of money,” he said. “They can step up to the plate.”

Can’t find confirmation anywhere other than in this story about the infighting between SEIU and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). Reporter Randy Shaw says SEIU is upset with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) for supporting NUHW. UTLA reportedly sponsored a fundraiser for NUHW in San Francisco, which was protested by SEIU activists.

According to Shaw, SEIU made a statement to UTLA that “it would seek to organize charter school teachers in retaliation for UTLA’s pro-NUHW stance.” If true, it’s an empty threat. What makes SEIU think it would be any more successful organizing charter school teachers than UTLA has been? And how much damage would it really do if it were successful?

Charter school teachers might ask what all this has to do with their needs, and the answer is nothing. Something to remember when the union guy shows up at school.

Click here to read:

1) Teacher Glut and Government Gluttony
2) Contract Hits
3) Last Week’s Intercepts
4) Quotes of the Week

Two bigwigs from the U.S. Department of Education ask how we can develop “a new vision, one that binds the work of researchers, evaluators, developers, practitioners, and policymakers and builds a cohesive structure for school reform.” I doubt my answer will satisfy.

In response to this post last Tuesday, I received the following through EIA’s Dead Drop page:

In a recent email to EIA, VEA’s GR Director Robley Jones claims the VEA union supports charter schools. That’s a complete fabrication. In the September 2009 issue of the VEA News here’s what President Kitty Boitnott said about them:

“I also worry that the current fascination with charter schools and tuition vouchers will continue to gain momentum here in Virginia, costing our children a quality education and resulting in the loss of jobs for teachers and other school employees. We are continually fighting to fully fund our public schools.”

Here’s a link to the article (on page 2):

http://www.veanea.org/vea-news/0909/images/VEANewsSept09.pdf

When the present charter school law was drafted many years ago, the VEA placed so many bureaucratic restrictions on charter schools as to make them almost impossible to organize. It’s no wonder Virginia has the fewest such institutions in the nation.

If you haven’t already heard about the incident, read this story or watch the video:

As the story notes, “Community groups and school board members held a rally in front of the headquarters of the United Teachers Los Angeles union. Although they never accused UTLA of being responsible for the flier, the union says the message was clear, and they are upset about it.”

It was not an unreasonable assumption, as UTLA is the primary opponent to the district’s school choice plan. But it isn’t the only opponent.

SEIU Local 99 represents education support employees in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and it isn’t thrilled with the district’s plan either.

We maintain that hiring non-District subcontractors does not serve the students of LAUSD. Living wages and health benefits that the District provides have been key ingredients for preventing high staff turnover. By creating good jobs in the neighborhood, schools have been able to attract workers who stay for many years, getting to know entire families and providing stability for students as they grow up. These elements will be lost if school operators are simply pushed to hire the lowest-bidding contractor.

If you are going to assume that a union, or a rogue element of a union, was behind the deportation flier, why would SEIU be a more logical choice? Matthew Kaminski inadvertently answers that question in an unrelated editorial in this morning’s Wall Street Journal.

Kaminski tells the story of SEIU’s ongoing battle with the National Union of Healthcare Workers in California. NUHW lost a decertification election and accused SEIU of campaign irregularities. A former SEIU staffer came forward with this story:

But now, Carlos Martinez, an immigrant from El Salvador who was on the SEIU’s staff during the campaign, has come forward—so he says—to blow the whistle on his employer. Mr. Martinez went door-to-door canvassing the home-care workers during the 15-day election. Like him, many of them are native Spanish speakers; some are illiterate.

Speaking in an interview over a sandwich at a hotel in the Bay Area late last month, Mr. Martinez says he was instructed by superiors to tell the workers that if they voted against the SEIU, they could lose their medical benefits, see their green cards or citizenship revoked and possibly be deported. He says he and other staffers were also told to pressure voters to spoil ballots that had been filled out for the NUHW. In other instances he filled ballots out for them. He says he even took some to the post office, as did other SEIU campaign workers.

All of these actions, if true, are a violation of state or federal laws governing union elections. In all, he adds, he visited 550 homes. “We scared people. We took the secret ballot away from these people,” he says. “It was wrong.”

(emphasis added)

There’s no hard evidence that anyone from either UTLA or SEIU was involved in the creation or distribution of the fliers. But if you’re going to go with that as your working hypothesis and hold a protest rally and press conference, you would be better off going with the one accused of the same practice in the past.