Right to Work Foundation Helps Charter School Teacher with Decertification Effort

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, of which CEAFU is a Special Project, is helping a charter school teacher in her effort to decertify the union at her school.  There are all sorts of ironies in this.  First of all, the school is California, home of the powerful California Teachers Association, which vehemently opposes all types of charter schools (except, obviously those they can unionize).  The school is named Gompers Preparatory Academy.  Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor, which eventually merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) to become the largest organization of unions in the United States (AFL-CIO).  Even though Samuel Gompers was a leading figure in the union movement, he often said, “No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion.”  It is also ironic to note that the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) supported anti-charter legislation.   Jose Nino has the story on libertyconservativenews.com.

Employees at Gompers Preparatory Academy (GPA), a charter school located in Chollas View neighborhood, have signed onto a petition for a vote to remove the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) union from exercising monopoly bargaining power at the school. GPA teacher Dr. Kristie Chiscano recently submitted the decertification petition at the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). Chiscano received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

SDEA’s presence at GPA has been controversial due to how it established itself in January 2019 through a controversial “card check” drive. The union bypassed the traditional method of a secret-ballot election to certify the union as the monopoly representative of all educators in the school.