Clovis teachers trying to unionize blame anti-union sentiment for missed deadline
In California’s largest school district without a teacher’s union, educators failed to meet their petition deadline to unionize, but organizers alleged the Clovis Unified School District’s decades-long influence and support of another group is unfairly impeding efforts to unionize.
The Association of Clovis Educators, the most recent effort to unionize teachers, said Clovis Unified and its “continued illegal financial support” of the district’s Faculty Senate are barriers to unionizing its teachers. District leaders, however, say the issues are independent and separate from each other.
The district won’t discuss the merits of the labor practice claims filed last year with the California Public Employees Relations Board, more commonly known by its acronym, PERB.
But those allegations are not preventing teachers from organizing, Clovis Unified spokesperson Kelly Avants said.
“Their contention is that once they dismantle Faculty Senate, they’ll be able to unionize,” she said, but it doesn’t mean that ACE will have the necessary signatures even if PERB rules in ACE’s favor.
Organizing Clovis teachers remains difficult
ACE has been trying to organize since at least July 2020 to provide a “meaningful voice” in the district’s decision-making process. Many teachers said they felt excluded from the decision-making process during the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic.
ACE currently represents only the district’s mental health professionals during bargaining.
About 75% of the district’s 78 school psychologists and mental health support professionals voted to unionize for the first time last year under ACE and are now asking for more staff, an “equitable and reasonable” caseload, a defined staff-student ratio, and enough time for their increasing duties.
In April 2021, ACE announced its efforts to petition for signatures among teachers, which started a one-year clock under the PERB that certifies unions.
ACE needed to collect signatures from at least 51% of Clovis Unified’s approximately 2,000 teachers by April this year. While ACE has declined to say how many signatures they gathered, leaders acknowledge missing the deadline but blamed the failure on ”the district’s illegal behavior.”
“That was not surprising to us considering the district’s illegal behavior supporting Faculty Senate,” ACE spokesperson and teacher Kristin Heimerdinger told The Bee’s Education Lab.
In early June 2021, ACE filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the district, alleging it stifled union organizing by influencing and supporting the faculty senate for decades, despite a 1980s ruling that found the district violated the law.
ACE accuses Clovis Unified of unfair labor practices
The July 2021 claim alleged that Clovis Unified violated the Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA) when it, among other things: (1) failed to remain neutral between ACE and the Faculty Senate; (2) contributed financially and supported the senate; (3) limited the rights of ACE to communicate with teachers; and (4) acting through the Senate, issued several communications that interfered with the protected rights of teachers to try to unionize.
That complaint also alleged that the district violated the Prohibition on Public Employers Deterring or Discouraging Union Membership (PEDD).
An amended complaint was filed in August.
The complaints cite an old PERB case that found the district violated EERA.
The 1983-84 PERB decision said Clovis Unified violated EERA by favoring the Faculty Senate over the Clovis Unified Teachers Association, which was trying to unionize at the time.
EERA says public school systems cannot impose reprisals, discriminate, interfere with, restrain, coerce or threaten employees because they exercise rights guaranteed to a union or by unionization efforts; deny organization rights guaranteed to employees by a union; or interfere with the formation or administration of any employee organization, contribute financial or other support to it, or in any way encourage employees to join any organization over another.
The 1983-84 decision also said Clovis Unified violated strict neutrality by meeting exclusively with the Faculty Senate while failing to offer to meet with the teachers’ association.
Other findings from the 1980s-era decision said the district:
provided financial assistance and support to the Faculty Senate by typing and distributing minutes, providing stationary and giving members release time.
appeared to endorse the Faculty Senate by preparing and paying for a mailing to all teachers two weeks before an election. The mailing had letters from the superintendent and the Faculty Senate saying the senate was responsible for eliminating a Saturday workday, reorganizing grievance procedures and introducing a proposed salary increase.
So PERB found that the District “denied employees the opportunity to exercise free choice” in the May 26, 1983, election.
It ordered the district and board to cease and desist from interfering with employees choosing to join an employee organization and from encouraging employees to join an organization over another by:
providing Faculty Senate with financial assistance and support not offered to the other teachers’ organizations
meeting exclusively with the Faculty Senate
crediting the Faculty Senate with employee benefits improving
“The district never has,” Heimerdinger said. “The district has continued to violate the law for 40 years.”
ACE pushing to ‘dismantle’ Clovis Unified’s Faculty Senate
A 1986 complaint said CUSD failed to comply with the earlier settlement agreement. But PERB is prohibited from enforcing agreements between parties, according to the 1986 decision dismissing the complaint.
The National Labor Relations Board, however, can enforce settlement agreements because it has a “prosecutorial role,” according to the PERB document. PERB instructed the California School Employees Association, who filed the complaint, to “look to the courts.”
“If that happened today, it would be a very different outcome for a number of reasons,” said Felix De La Torre, general counsel for PERB. “One (reason) is that this board is very committed to enforcing its orders.”
PERB has ruled in favor of the teachers’ union before. PERB has no enforcement power by itself but can seek compliance by taking employers back to court.
“If they don’t comply on their own voluntarily, we have the power to go to court and try to get an enforcement order from the trial judge,” De La Torre said. “This is an order that we’re comfortable we can enforce and get compliance with state law.”
Since December, the case has had more than 20 days of hearings with an administrative law judge, with four days scheduled in September, Heimerdinger said.
Heimerdinger and others are under a gag order until it’s over, which is when the transcripts will become public.
PERB can either accept or reject the law judge’s findings.
“It’s really slow, and it’s going to take a while to get all of that resolved,” she said about ACE’s attempt to “dismantle” Faculty Senate. “We know that the longer Faculty Senate continues to exist, the more confusing it is for our colleagues who feel like they already have representation through Faculty Senate. The problem is that representation violates the law.”
Faculty Senate can’t bargain but is paid to represent employees
The Faculty Senate is considered the district’s teacher group that supports them in their duties and communicates on their behalf.
Working like an advisory panel, the Faculty Senate represents teachers at the district level during decision-making but cannot bargain or negotiate, according to organizers who’ve spoken with The Fresno Bee. Some Clovis teachers have argued against unionizing while urging the district to keep its Faculty Senate.
There’s a large group of teachers who don’t want to unionize, Avants said.
Avants said the fact that CUSD doesn’t have a teachers union has served as an attraction to many teacher candidates over the years.
“Philosophically, I think a lot of the people who come to work here are drawn by the fact that they aren’t suddenly forced into a bigger issue (if unionized),” Avants said. “They don’t like people taking their voice.”
Without being recognized as a union, ACE serves the same function as the Faculty Senate — representing Clovis Unified teachers without bargaining power.
The difference is that CUSD provides money to Faculty Senate to represent teachers. Avants confirmed the Faculty Senate asked for stipends decades ago, and CUSD has been providing it. Over the years, the district has argued that Faculty Senate isn’t a rival organization of groups trying to unionize but teachers representing their peers.
Clovis Unified pays Faculty Senators, who are elected every two years by teachers from each school site, an annual stipend of $889, according to documents given to PERB. An executive board leads the senate with a president, vice president, parliamentarian, secretary, and two communication positions who serve two-year terms and are paid a $1,538 annual stipend. The senate president is relieved from their teaching duties to work on Faculty Senate business; the vice president and secretary receive release time from their teaching duties as well.
In the past, the senate used a school district credit card to purchase things for their meetings and used district vehicles. Based on information the district provided to PERB in August 2021, the group no longer allows credit card or vehicle use.
Organizers say anti-union sentiment is part of Clovis Unified’s DNA; they pointed to a sort-of manifesto penned by Dr. Floyd B. “Doc” Buchanan, CUSD’s first superintendent in the 1960s. The document, dubbed “Doc’s Charge,” includes the statement, “The professionals who work in our district are proud that we do not have collective bargaining.”
PERB said “Doc’s Charge” appeared to serve as Clovis Unified’s mission statement.
The Clovis High School website says Doc’s Charge “still serves as the guiding influence for all who work in Clovis Unified.”
ACE in its complaint to PERB says CUSD tells newly-hired employees that the school system is a nonunion district and that they are represented by the Faculty Senate.
PERB will make a ruling about all of the allegations after both ACE and the district have presented their cases. ACE was still presenting its case in mid-August.
Heimerdinger said ACE continues its efforts to unionize and to educate their colleagues about what Clovis Unified can do.
“They can and should do a better job on behalf of their students and teachers.”
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.
This story was originally published September 19, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the PERB hearings. The story has been corrected to note the hearings are open to the public.
