Support Arizona Charter School Workers' Right to Organize

City Center for Collaborative Learning School Board

The teachers and staff of City High School and Paulo Freire Freedom School campuses announced their intent to form a union at their Charter School Board meeting in December. The board, City Center for Collaborative Learning, then hired Littler Mendelson, an expensive out of state “union prevention” law firm, and proceeded to file expensive legal actions. In doing so they have taken the legal position that staff should not have the right to bargain or choose to form a union in a federally supervised election. If successful, this precedent could strip all Arizona charter school employees of their current union organizing and bargaining rights.

Littler Mendelson is the same global union-busting law firm hired by Starbucks and Amazon in their efforts to deny and defeat their workers’ attempts at negotiating their first contracts.

We believe ethically that state education funds should be utilized to support students and teachers' educational needs, NOT union-busting attorneys attempting to strip educators of their freedom to choose to unionize.

We believe in the inherent right of all of Arizona’s charter school teachers and staff, to voluntarily choose to organize, unionize, and collectively bargain.

To: City Center for Collaborative Learning School Board
From: [Your Name]

We vehemently oppose the Board of City Center for Collaborative Learning's legal position that their staff and educators at City High and Paulo Freire Freedom Schools should not have the right to bargain or choose to form a union in a federally supervised election. We denounce the board's decision to hire Littler Mendelson, the same union-prevention law firm fighting against organizing Starbucks and Amazon workers across the country, to achieve their goal through already-filed legal actions.

We believe in the inherent right of all of Arizona’s charter teachers and staff, to choose to organize, unionize, and collectively bargain. We believe ethically that state education funds should be utilized to support students and teachers' educational needs, NOT union-busting attorneys attempting to strip educators of their freedom to choose to unionize.

We call on the Board of City Center for Collaborative Learning to recognize their anti-union actions as completely contrary to the shared culture, goals and values of their schools, and to reverse course immediately. We demand the CCCL Board recognize the right of their staff and educators to form a union, hold and election, and collectively bargain.