AFL-CIO sides against teachers union

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, July 2, 2007 | 7:06 a.m.

Danny Thompson didn't say much, but his presence at the Teamsters Local 14 offices Thursday spoke volumes.

Thompson is executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada State AFL-CIO, and he shared the podium with Teamsters officials as they announced their plans to dethrone the Clark County Education Association.

Although the national offices of Teamsters and the AFL-CIO split in 2005, local groups have maintained close ties. Thompson said he is backing Teamsters Local 14 because it is an affiliate of the Nevada State AFL-CIO. He said he offered similar status to the current teachers union in the past but was turned down.

Nationally, however, the AFL-CIO has partnered with the National Education Association, which is affiliated with the Clark Country Education Association and is the country's largest teachers union. NEA affiliates are encouraged to sign "solidarity partnerships" with local AFL-CIO offices, and to take active roles in the organization's central labor council.

Terry Hickman, executive director of the Nevada State Education Association, said the teachers union had been considering joining the AFL-CIO's Southern Nevada central labor council. But Thompson's appearance alongside the Teamsters local "will certainly slow down that process," Hickman said.

At that appearance, Teamsters handed out copies of a letter sent by Thompson to his organization's members and affiliates. The Dec. 16, 2006, letter announced that the state teachers union and Teamsters had struck a bargain in his office several months earlier.

Thompson wrote that in the 2007 legislative session, the teachers union would drop its support of the requirement that makes it harder for another union to wrest away the right to represent teachers. That requirement is for 50 percent plus one of all eligible employees to vote in favor of new representation - a "super-majority - as opposed to gaining a simple majority of the ballots cast.

The union would also support the expansion of seniority rights as a priority in future bargaining sessions for all public employees protected by state statute, Thompson wrote.

In return, Teamsters would support allowing a neutral third party to verify the cards that must be signed and collected from teachers before a representation election can be scheduled.

But Teamsters chief executive Gary Mauger said that once the legislative session got under way, the teachers union didn't keep its side of the bargain. "That's the credibility issue we're dealing with," Mauger said.

Not true, Hickman replied.

Thompson's letter misrepresented the discussion that took place, Hickman said.

The teachers union never promised to abandon the super-majority requirement, and it would have "made no sense" to do so, Hickman said.

The purpose of the October meeting was to resolve the Teamsters' ongoing challenge to the support employees union, which is also an NEA affiliate, Hickman said. In the months that followed the meeting, Teamsters filed additional legal challenges that are costly and time-consuming to defend, Hickman said.

"You can't talk about peace and continue to file court cases," Hickman said.