| Reminder — Please fill out our Fall Survey! You can find our Fall Survey at: tinyurl.com/USFallSurvey Your responses will inform our work as we move into bargaining our first contract, so please take a few minutes to give us your perspective. Our goal is to have all responses in by next Friday, Oct. 11. Our Status A lot of teachers have questions about where exactly Unite Summit is at in the unionization process. Here’s a quick explainer. We filed for union recognition with the Public Employment Relations Board at the end of January; PERB certified that Unite Summit had support from the majority of teachers at Summit. Summit denied recognition of our union in April and has been arguing since then that deans and certain Home Office employees must be included in our union. We created Unite Summit to give teachers a voice and to make an improvement at our school sites, so we do not think it’s appropriate to include Home Office employees or deans in our union. In July, PERB ordered Summit to give a rationale as to why employees who aren’t teachers should be covered by our union. We are now waiting for an attorney from PERB to issue a decision as to which employees should be included in our union. Once we receive PERB’s decision about who will be included in our union, we can begin bargaining our contract(though there is a possibility that Summit could appeal the decision. Summit could also simply voluntarily agree to recognize our union at any time). So, what does this all mean for us right now? – We are a union. – Our activity as a union is legally protected. – We have the right to request information from Summit. – Summit must notify us of any changes to working conditions and meet with us before changes are implemented. – You have the right to ask for union representation if you have a meeting with your supervisor that you believe could lead to discipline. – We will begin negotiating our union contract once we receive PERB’s decision. This is not a question of “if” we will be certified but “when.” |