The Association of Clovis Educators (ACE), which is backed by the California Teachers Association, last week filed an intervention petition with the state labor board in hopes of forcing an election among Clovis Unified School District educators.
The unaffiliated Independent Clovis Unified Educators, or ICUE, filed its petition in July to become the exclusive representative for full-time teachers in the district, which is California’s largest without a teachers union.
ACE has challenged ICUE’s petition, calling into question who, among educators, might be represented and eligible to vote, according to The Fresno Bee, which first reported the development.
California’s Public Employment Relations Board will likely make a ruling to determine who is represented before opening such an election, according to The Bee.
Over the last five years, both ACE and ICUE have campaigned to represent district teachers. While trying to garner support among teachers, ACE has formed unions with Clovis Unified mental health professionals, American Sign Language interpreters and outdoor school naturalists.
ICUE’s petition, filed with more than 50% of signatures from nearly 2,000 full-time teachers, seeks to provide representation of those educators.
“ACE/CTA has organized other certificated groups as they have gotten the signatures to do so,” said Tony Silva, the labor representative for the law firm Goyette, Ruano & Thompson, which represents ICUE. “They have not hesitated to file when they get the support for each job classification, such as the psychologists or the speech therapists.”
Because the two groups disagree on which employees should be covered by the union, PERB may make a ruling before opening an election for teachers to choose between ACE, ICUE, or no union representation, a PERB official told The Bee.
Both groups want to represent all educators, whether part or full time and no matter the job classification. Getting there has proven difficult, which is why both have filed to represent smaller groups.
Some teachers have not wanted to unionize. Being a nonunion district has attracted several teacher candidates over the years, district officials have said.
Others argue that teachers have not unionized in the district’s 66-year history because of Clovis Unified’s alleged anti-union culture.
This story was originally published by EdSource.