Teacher Challenges School Policy that Discriminates Against Nonunion Teachers during Professional Hearings

Union members receive access to counsel while nonmember teachers aren’t allowed to bring their own attorneys

Miami, FL (April 1, 2010) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Miami-Dade public school teacher has filed unfair labor practice charges challenging a discriminatory policy that prevents nonunion teachers from using representatives of their own choosing during school investigatory interviews.

Shawn Beightol, a veteran chemistry teacher at Michel Krop Sr. High School, was told to report to the Miami-Dade County Office of Professional Standards (OPS) to discuss a possible violation of the school’s email policy last October.

The United Teachers of Dade (UTD) union is the exclusive bargaining agent for the Miami-Dade School District. However, Beightol is a member of the Professional Educations Network of Florida (PENFL), a nonunion teachers association. Although Beightol brought a representative from the PENFL to the October hearing, school officials refused to allow his advisor to participate.

Beightol’s charges allege that the Miami-Dade School District and UTD union officials unfairly discriminate against nonunion teachers by denying them the opportunity to bring private counsel to professional hearings. Although UTD members are entitled to union counsel at investigatory conferences, the teachers’ contract – negotiated by union officials with the school district – forbids private attorneys. This practice effectively discourages teachers from leaving UTD or joining a voluntary teacher association instead of the union.

Florida law explicitly prohibits public employers from encouraging union membership through discriminatory workplace practices. Florida’s popular Right to Work Law also guarantees that no employee – public or private – can be coerced into joining a union or paying union dues.

“This policy is nothing more than an underhanded way to force reluctant teachers into union ranks,” said Patrick Semmens, legal information director for the National Right to Work Foundation. “Union bosses and complicit public school administrators use these discriminatory policies to bludgeon nonmember teachers and voluntary teacher associations for offering workplace alternatives to union monopoly bargaining.”

Beightol’s charges will now be investigated by the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission in Tallahassee.