Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

School district workers to decide between 2 feuding unions

An election will be held in November to settle a feud between two unions that want to represent thousands of Clark County School District workers.

The Nevada Employee-Management Relations Board has ordered ballots to be mailed to the school district's support staff on Nov. 2, with vote-counting set for Dec. 5.

The union that collects a simple majority of votes cast will win the right to represent the workers.

Labor board commissioner Bruce K. Snyder says the Education Support Employees Association has represented the 11,258 workers for decades. Teamsters Local 14 has been attempting a takeover since 2002. The legal wrangling has led to three appeals to the Nevada Supreme Court, Snyder said.

The teamsters won 71 percent of the vote in February but less than half of workers voted. As a result, union representation remained unchanged because 50 percent plus one of all eligible voters was need to make a switch,

The Teamsters cheered the decision to change the requirement.

"I applaud the board for ruling in favor of democracy," Larry Griffith, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 14 said in a statement.

Doug McCain, president of the Education Support Employees Association, disputed the board's ruling and said a decision on when and how an election should be conducted would have to come from the state Supreme Court.

Snyder said the high court previously made it clear that any appeal would have to come after an election.

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