Unionizing charter schools, bashing teacher unions: how ‘capital’ makes us hate organized working peoplehttp://dailycensored.com/2010/06/18/unionizing-charter-schools-bashing-teacher-unions-and-really-all-unions-how-the-right-wing-makes-us-hate-organized-working-people/
KIPP management fights back
Why ‘Capital’ hates ‘unexploited labor’
Perhaps it was with at the urging of his conservative colleagues, other charter schools and their providers who feared unionization, or the maybe it was the various philanthropists who finance KIPP who whispered in Levin’s ear, but whichever the case, within one month of the announcement by the teachers, the UFT was forced to send two complaints to the state board arguing that KIPP not only was not cooperating or working to recognize the new union, but was actually stifling and blocking the teachers’ ability to organize.
It seemed David Levin and KIPP would not give up the power struggle just yet, at least not without a fight. Randi Weingarten, current president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) represents teachers at more than 70 charter schools nationwide; she suspects there was pressure on Levin from financial backers, venture capitlists and Wall Street hucksters, which now underlies the tension between the two sides. KIPP presently has 66 charter schools in 19 states, with plans for more. The last thing they wish is a union precedent for their other schools. At the same time she also expressed disappointment with KIPP and David Levin in the New York Times, noting that in her conversation with David Levin: "We had talked in the abstract about doing great things together, about creating a laboratory for reform with teacher support. So I am deeply disappointed by these actions” (Medina 2009).
The announcement that KIPP teachers were unionizing was to have other side effects as well. According to the Times article, teachers spoke of an environment at KIPP that had grown increasingly cold with suspicion, intimidation and fear since the announcement of the union drive. Levin’s initial offer to work with the union appeared to have deliquesced into anger and hostility. Covering the story for the New York Times at the time the initial controversy reared its head, was reporter Jennifer Medina, who wrote: “….several teachers said in interviews, the atmosphere at the school has grown increasingly tense, with administrators making veiled threats about the effect of creating a union. E-mail and text messages that would usually be returned at all hours have gone unanswered. And late last month, teachers said they were told by their students, school administrators pulled students into a private meeting and asked them to critique their teachers” (ibid).
The teachers claimed the problem was even worse than reported to the public at the time. Complaints filed by the UFT with the Public Employees Relation Board accused human resource officials at the KIPP schools of spooking teachers, and menacing students and their parents in what can only be seen as a veiled threat, that with unionization KIPP might lose its affiliation with the whole KIPP network.
It's a rather long article about the vicissitudes of teachers attempting to create a unionized workplace in charter schools. It was difficult to decide which place to excerpt from, so I definitely recommend following the link to the story. It's another knockout by Danny Weil.
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