Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism!

In my 20-plus years in education, the union has been in the background of my career until very recently. I have always known that the union negotiates contracts and would provide support if I needed legal assistance, but I didn’t expect to need my union. Suddenly, a few months ago, I needed their help, along with my department. With their support, we began 2023 with a powerful victory. And the union remains at our side even now, in the aftermath of a difficult legal battle with broad implications about the limitations of administrative power.

In May of last year, Project Connect, our department that serves vulnerable youth, saw a meeting on our calendars for Friday afternoon with HR. Since we all got the invite, we thought it unlikely to be a mass firing. What we walked into didn’t seem much better.

We were told that we would be moved from our union positions into classified roles with new titles and job descriptions. An administrator offered some explanation to our team, but the reasoning remains murky to this day. We would return “in a few weeks” to learn about our new wages, job descriptions, 

We felt angry, shocked, and defeated. We walked into the weekend uncertain of our futures, uncertain about how to continue our work in our year-round positions. Our colleagues asked, “can they do that?” I didn’t know, so I called the union. In our defeated mindset, we wondered if we would hear back and if anyone would know what to do. We kept our expectations low.

Representatives at the highest levels of our union replied with support and expertise that brought us hope, which we deeply needed as we learned that most of our wages would be cut by around 30%, to take effect about two weeks later. Our retirement system would change. We would all be on probation for one year. The most significant change came to be that we left the union oversight and procedures for administration to “discipline” employees.

Concurrently, our union was fighting for a new contract that would, among other things, improve the health and safety of our buildings. Our union had been on alert that we would need advocacy for our contract, but when our membership of over 4,000 people heard what happened to Project Connect, they showed up for us. We all wore our “Solidarity” t-shirts in the 100+ degree heat outside of a board meeting. We knew that we would need each other in the event of a strike, and our colleagues knew they wanted Project Connect to remain strong. I spoke at that board meeting with more support behind me than I could have anticipated. 

The union experts at the local and state levels saw a significant violation of labor laws in how the district removed Project Connect from the bargaining unit, so we filed a case with the State Employment Relations Board (SERB). The school board and administration agreed to temporarily keep our pay the same as the other changes went into effect. Our case would not be heard until the fall, with a decision expected in winter. We faced our futures with uncertainty, but instead of our initial desperation, we had confidence–thanks to our union.

We took our fight to local airwaves over the summer when I spoke on a local NPR show about the unilateral decision to move Project Connect out of its bargaining unit. My apprehension about speaking so publicly dissolved when union representatives connected me with kind experts in public relations who prepared me well to get behind the microphone. I became accustomed to the utmost support in this process.

We would eventually strike and gain contractually enforceable language to improve our buildings before it ended. The solidarity as a union held into the next school year when administrators started disciplining members of Project Connect, myself included. They did not follow the procedures that they would need to under union rules, telling us to give up our fight because we would lose our arbitration. They suspended members of our team, some more than once. 

The head of our department testified at arbitration this fall with supporting testimony of a former supervisor. We waited. We worked under the threat of constant discipline. 

Then on our first day back after winter break, we got a call from our union, and from the first sentence, I heard the joy and knew it was good news. I heard the union president in the background clapping as they told us that the SERB had decided in our favor! The district would be required to immediately restore the union status of the positions.

We have much work in front of us to roll back some discipline files, restore retirement money to the correct system, and remedy the situation overall. But we do it with our union, the body we rarely considered for most of our careers but came to need. Fiercely. And they showed up fiercely to protect Project Connect and to protect union jobs, with success. 

Our union shared our fight, our frustration, and now our joy! When we were upset and uncertain, the union handled the situation, brought our colleagues to rally around us, and delivered a departmental and union victory. I truly didn’t think I would ever need the union, and I was glad to discover that when I did, they showed up. They have been there solidly for Project Connect and me for many months. They bring expertise. They bring support. They bring solidarity.

Editor’s Note: If you enjoyed this article, please become a Patreon supporter by clicking here.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.