NLRB blocks union election at Stetson Charter School

THE NATIONAL Labor Relations Board yesterday blocked a union vote set for later this week at John B. Stetson Charter School after the union behind the organizing efforts filed an unfair-labor-practice charge.

The Alliance of Charter School Employees union claims that Stetson, which is managed by charter operator ASPIRA Inc. of Pennsylvania, has violated federal law. The school has interfered with employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act, according to the union, by:

* Telling employees that "union organizing will be futile."

* Providing benefits to staffers engaged in union organizing, "intended to influence employees' votes or may result in influencing employees' votes."

* Engaging in surveillance of employees involved in union activities.

* "Threatening, intimidating, and coercing" Stetson's organizing leaders by separating them from the rest of the staff during captive-audience meetings.

ASPIRA chief operating officer Thomas Darden did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily News.

The mandatory meetings were run by a group of self-described union-busters who did not give their full names when asked by staffers, employees told the Daily News.

This unidentified group mistakenly believed, for example, that an employee of Olney Charter High School was a Stetson employee when she showed up at Stetson, on B Street near Allegheny Avenue in Kensington, according to the filing. "They said out loud, 'We need her name, we need her name, get the list,' " according to the document, indicating that the "employer is engaging in surveillance of workers."

The union represents Olney Charter and is organizing at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School, both run by ASPIRA. It also filed two unfair-labor-practice charges against Olney and De Hostos.

In Olney's case, the union alleges that the school violated federal law by firing an employee engaged in protected activity and by denying him union representation during a disciplinary meeting. ASPIRA of Pennsylvania schools superintendent Andrea Gonzalez-Kerwin terminated the employee and denied the union rep, according to union sources familiar with the case.

The union alleges that the De Hostos administration made changes to working conditions in response to its organizing effort at the school, on 2nd Street near Godfrey Avenue in Olney.

Online: ph.ly/DNEducation