CCSD: Teachers union continues to threaten strike

The Clark County School District said in a court filing Tuesday that the Clark County Education Association continues to threaten an illegal strike, and pointed to disruptions at last week’s School Board meeting in claiming the teachers union has already interrupted district operations.

“Defendants seek to distract from the fact that they have repeatedly violated (state law) by threatening to strike unless the district acquiesces to union bargaining demands,” the district said in its filing. “The Nevada Legislature outlawed these types of strategies and threats more than 50 years ago, and notably, it is the district’s understanding that no other public union in the state of Nevada has flouted this longstanding pronouncement, let alone so flagrantly.”

CCSD sued CCEA in Clark County District Court on July 31, citing 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 new contract by Aug. 26.

At a July 29 news conference following a CCEA member meeting, for example, Vellardita spoke about the possibility of “work actions;” when a reporter asked him if that meant “strike,” he said “we’re calling it work action today” to cheers from union members.

CCSD interpreted that as a threat to strike, which is illegal in Nevada for employees of local and state governments. 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 district said that, since it filed its suit, union leaders have “continued to threaten, prepare for, and engage in ‘work actions’ that plainly amount to a strike,” and have done so “with a wink and a nod.”

The district additionally cited statements made at an Aug. 1 CCEA news conference and an Aug. 3 podcast interview that Vellardita did with Las Vegas journalist Steve Sebelius where, the fling argued, Vellardita did not explicitly disavow a strike.

“It is simply not believable in context or in light of the history of threats made by CCEA, that Vellardita is only referring to undefined and undecided work actions,” it wrote, with “history” alluding to a 2019 strike threat. “CCEA may claim in their brief that they have no idea what their membership will do until they meet on Aug. 26, but CCEA’s history, actions, and public comments made by leadership make it abundantly clear that such a position is untenable.”

In an Aug. 8 filing in response to the district’s initial allegations, the union said that a strike is not imminent, making the district’s suit premature, misplaced and legally inadequate.

CCEA characterized CCSD’s complaint as “aggressively trying to chill the expression and deliberation of teachers,” “threadbare allegations and absurd hyperbole,” a “political attack,” “spurious,” “ill-conceived,” an “overwrought reaction to (a) handful of irrelevant statements,” and built on “thin allegations” and “cherry-picked quotes and a breathless false panic.”

The union’s filing acknowledged that public schoolteacher strikes are illegal in Nevada, and said that CCEA officials have repeatedly expressed that in public. It also says that union leadership has used conditional language about “work actions” that union members have yet to vote on.

The filing said that a “work action” can potentially mean working not a minute past the standard seven-hour, 11-minute contracted day, or engaging in “informational picketing.” Neither of these are strikes.

But CCSD pointed to the Aug. 10 School Board meeting, where hundreds of union demonstrators protested outside the meeting and several dozen packed the meeting chambers.

They chanted, “no contract, no peace” and “CCSD is on fire.”

“The district did not interfere with CCEA’s planned protests or seek to (prohibit) the actions… However, the trustees meeting quickly devolved into chaos with CCEA members shouting down the trustees and ultimately preventing the trustees from conducting their business,” the district said in its filing. “Twice, protesters took over the meeting, outside of the public comment period, with chants intended solely to disrupt the district’s business.”

The district said this was concerted interruption by an employee organization of the operations of a local government employer, which is expressly part of the definition of “strike” under state law alongside work stoppages, slowdowns and calling out sick when not ill.

“Thus, even CCEA’s recent and purportedly valid ‘work actions’ run afoul of (state law),” the district wrote.

The district plans to again hold negotiations with CCEA on Thursday and Friday.

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