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“More than 200 charter school educators and school employees in
Michigan, California and New York will walk into their
classrooms Monday morning with a stronger voice for their
profession and for their students. I congratulate the educators
at Detroit’s César Chávez Academy, Los Angeles’ Ivy
Academia and Ithaca, N.Y.’s New Roots Charter School on their
efforts to win a union voice, and I welcome them to the AFT
family.
“Their strength and determination—in the face of enormous
odds—demonstrates their commitment to each other and the
children they serve. And they will now have the support of 1.5
million AFT members beside them in their continued effort to
strengthen their schools.”
On Feb. 7, in the shadow of Michigan's recent passage of
so-called right-to-work legislation, teachers and counselors on
the four campuses of Detroit’s César Chávez Academy won
an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board
after a five-month effort. César Chávez is the largest charter
in Detroit and is the second-largest charter in Michigan. The
Detroit victory was the first election conducted by the NLRB
since a December ruling that charter schools may be considered
private sector employers.
In the same week, teachers at two other charter schools
successfully won access to the path toward certification under
their states' public sector labor laws. In Los Angeles, teachers
at Ivy Academia received voluntary recognition of their union
after 54 of 56 faculty members signed a union petition. United
Teachers Los Angeles now represents more than 1,600 educators at
independent charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School
District.
Also, on the East Coast, educators at New Roots Charter School
in Ithaca, N.Y., recently received voluntary recognition of
their union at the end of January.
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