Editor’s note: The Sun wasn’t selected to cover the Clark County Education Association’s news conference Tuesday. We watched the event on the live feed on KSNV-TV.
The Clark County School District is seeking an injunction against the Clark County Education Association to prevent the teachers union from striking or staging similar work actions next month, according to a court filing.
The complaint, filed Monday in Clark County District Court, cites several public comments made by union leaders and members that “work actions,” as CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita has phrased them, are possible if the union does not have a contract by Aug. 26.
CCSD interpreted that as a threat to strike.
As a public school district, CCSD is a local government agency. Strikes by state and local governments are illegal under Nevada law. The law also allows government employers to apply for injunctive relief — or getting a court to block an action — “if a strike is threatened against the state or a local government employer.”
The complaint names Vellardita, union President Marie Neisess and union vice president Jim Frazee as defendants.
“The district does not take these actions lightly as our educators await a new contract, but Nevada law is crystal clear that a strike or a threat of a strike is unlawful and, when undertaken, is grounds for withdrawal of recognition as the bargaining agent of a local government employee group,” the district said in a statement.
The school year starts on Monday.
Vellardita and a union spokesman have not responded to the Sun’s request for comment on CCSD’s lawsuit.
However, at a press conference Tuesday morning, Vellardita said it was not a surprise that CCSD went to court to essentially “chill and persuade our bargaining efforts.”
“It’s not just a veiled threat to try to influence the people that are behind me, to try to scare or bully or intimidate. I think it’s their effort to deflect what’s going on at the table,” he said.
The district’s complaint cites multiple union statements made in news and social media that telegraph what effectively would amount to a strike, even if union members don’t use the word. On Saturday, at a press conference at the Rio following a CCEA member meeting, Vellardita said there would be no agreement until CCSD funds salary increase by dipping into its share of $2 billion that was added to the state’s education budget for next biennium. Those monies would be in addition to $250 million already set aside for pay raises.
And if there is no agreement by Aug. 26, union members will vote on whether to “engage in work actions.”
Vellardita did not, at that time, define “work action.” A reporter asked him if that means “strike.”
“We’re calling it work action today,” he said to cheers from union members.
Those actions, he added, could begin in the portion of CCSD represented by School Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales. District C includes North Las Vegas and the surrounding area.
The complaint cited several additional instances of statements referencing actions “clearly amounting to a strike.”
In a radio appearance last month, Vellardita told a KMZQ interviewer that “this is really serious because we’ve been told and been directed by our membership that, you know, there’s not going to be a school year without a contract. These teachers have to be paid. So, we’re actually closely at a crossroads in this struggle with the school district and it’s fast approaching.”
On July 18, a teacher responded to a staffwide email about the district’s proposed new pay schedule with “We WILL have a contract, or you’ll be opening schools alone.”
The next day, CCEA Treasurer Kenneth Belknap retweeted CCEA’s tweet about protesting a “Java with Jara” community outreach event, saying “We get the contract we are willing to fight for, see you all on the picket line.”
Vellardita said on Tuesday that a “work action” can mean working not a minute past the standard 7-hour, 11-minute contracted day. But, he added, the final decision on work actions will be made during the Aug. 26 union meeting. The union membership could also vote on ratifying a contract at that time, he said.
“What’s upsetting with recent activities of CCSD is that they are trying to take away the rights of our educators, the rights to bargain a contract, the rights to work on classroom issues that they’re facing each and every day,” Neisess said. “It’s unacceptable what CCSD is currently doing to our educators. Our educators are fired up and they’re angry. They want to shut down their voices and our voices will not be silenced. We’ve had enough.”
State law prohibits “stoppage of work … (a)bsence from work by employees … upon any pretext or excuse, such as illness, which is not founded in fact; or … (i)nterruption of the operations of the State of Nevada or any local government employer by an employee organization or labor organization.”
CCSD wants the court to issue a “declaratory judgment” that the union “unequivocally and publicly threatening to strike soon after Aug. 26, that such a strike is illegal, and that not only should CCEA be enjoined from striking but “specifically mandating that defendants communicate the strike cancellation to its members and urge them not to engage in any such work stoppage.”
CCSD said it has also filed with the state Employee-Management Relations Board a petition to withdraw CCEA’s bargaining agent status as the representative for CCSD’s licensed professional employees.
“The district is extremely disappointed in the CCEA’s threats of illegal strikes and its misrepresentations of the district’s contract proposals,” the district said in its statement. “These actions by the CCEA don’t move the parties any closer to reaching a new agreement and are a disservice to the district’s students, parents and staff.”
The district plans to again hold negotiations with CCEA on Aug. 17 and 18.
Among other demands, CCEA seeks 18% across-the-board pay raises over two years; plus additional compensation for special education teachers; teachers in high-vacancy, typically low-income schools; and an increased pay rate for teachers working extended-day hours at certain campuses.