Subject: [SocialistWorker.org] Chicago charter school takes aim at the union
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View original article here:
http://socialistworker.org/2010/12/08/chicago-charter-takes-aim
Comment: Jim Vail
======== CHICAGO CHARTER SCHOOL TAKES AIM AT THE UNION =======================
Jim Vail, a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, reports on how a charter
school named for a slain union organizer is determined to stop teachers from
organizing.
December 8, 2010
IN AN ironic twist, the school that features the name of one of Chicago's
best-known union organizers is trying to stop the teachers from forming a
union.
Recently, the teachers at the Rudy Lozano Leadership Academy voted to form a
union at the school, which is named after Rudy Lozano, a union organizer and
immigrant activist who was murdered in the early 1980s. The Lozano Leadership
Academy is a small charter school located near where Lozano was murdered in
1983.
The image of Juan Salgado as a leader of a "progressive" organization fades
like an old photograph when he begins to hire union-busting law firms to stop
the unionization of workers at the Rudy Lozano charter school in Chicago.
But Salgado, the director and chief executive officer of the Instituto del
Progresso Latino, which oversees the charter school, has taken the teachers
to court because he does not want the charter school to be recognized with a
union, according to the Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (ACTS), which
helps charter school teachers form a union.
Salgado employed a law firm which specializes in "union avoidance," held
meetings with teachers and filed a challenge with the National Labor
Relations Board, according to ACTS. "I know many of you might be shocked by
this because Juan Salgado is known for so much activism work in the city of
Chicago and the Instituto del Progresso Latino is known for all its work with
helping the Mexican American community, especially in Pilsen," wrote one
teacher in an email asking people to sign a petition [1].
"The irony," the teacher wrote further, "is that our school, Rudy Lozano, is
named after one of the greatest union organizers the city of Chicago has ever
seen. There is talk of Juan running for congressman."
According to its Web site, the Rudy Lozano Leadership Academy at 2570 S. Blue
Island, was founded in 1996 and is housed in the Institute for Latin
Progress. The school is affiliated with the Youth Connection Charter School.
It is a three-year alternative high school serving 109 students ages 17-21,
mostly Hispanic youth from the Little Village, Back of the Yards and Pilsen
neighborhoods.
ACTS, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, is helping charter
teachers across the city to unionize. They recently helped to unionize
teachers at four Aspira charter schools, three Chicago International Charter
schools, and the Chicago Math and Science Academy (CMSA).
CMSA had earlier fired a highly regarded pregnant teacher who helped organize
a union at the school in June and challenged the teachers' right to form a
union. CMSA, which also hired a prominent anti-union law firm, had argued
that the teachers could not unionize because they are a private entity.
However, the state labor relations board ruled that the charter school is a
public school with public workers who are governed under the Illinois
Educational Labor Relations Act, ACTS reported. Chicago ACTS currently
represents eight unionized charter schools in Chicago.
/First published at Substance News [2]/.
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[1] http://action.aft.org/c/466/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=967
[2] http://www.substancenews.net
