NYSUT welcomed Buffalo’s King Center Charter School into the union fold in late October after the group of 65 kindergarten through 8th grade educators and support staff voted overwhelmingly to organize. Teachers contacted NYSUT organizer Rose Hennessy in early June after feeling unheard by the schools’ board of directors and executive director.
“For the last two years, we’ve met with the board of directors each June to voice our concerns and none of them were addressed or taken seriously,” said special education teacher Meaghan Hayes, one of several teachers who spearheaded the organizing effort. Concerns included overwork, pay transparency, building maintenance issues and having a workplace voice. “We had a September listening session [last year] with three of the seven board members, gave them a list of questions to respond to and we still don’t have a response.”
The school board bringing in a third-party mediator to facilitate communication between staff and administrators, following an end-of-year no-confidence vote in the district’s executive director by staff, was the last straw. “It wasn’t a real mediator,” said NYSUT organizer Tori Coon explaining that the facilitator brought in was a close friend of the executive director and several board members. “They met with teachers individually, and after the meetings the mediator reported back to the executive director.”
“They picked and chose who got to meet with the mediator and we got no results from that,” said Hayes. “We felt we were treated badly and that’s when we made the decision to contact NYSUT.”
Hennessy and Coon’s first step was to form an organizing committee with Hayes and other staffers and educate them about unions and unionizing. Discussions with colleagues by organizing committee members began with a narrative shift, explained Coon. “The focus was no longer about issues with the executive director but problems the educators were facing.”
At a mid-August general organizing meeting attended by most of the staff, the organizing committee shared the fledgling local’s organizing mission statement. “It’s about issues like having a voice, workplace transparency, job security, fair pay and teachers having input to improve student learning conditions,” said Coon.
After a busy summer and fall of organizing, an Oct. 30 vote garnered a clear majority for unionizing as the King Center United Professionals, KCUP for short. Although dates haven’t been set, the group is working with NYSUT labor relations specialist Anna Geronimo to prep for their first bargaining session. “Our biggest asks will be health and retirement benefits, compensation, health and safety issues,” said Hayes. “We’re also looking at class sizes and ensuring that teachers have the time and resources to prep for and support students.
“We have a good working relationship with the principal and assistant principal,” continued Hayes. “Organizing wasn’t about opposing the school but … having a formal way to express concerns and work together to improve our work environment for ourselves and students.”