School board violated UTNO contract, arbitrator rules

School employees represented by the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) won a major legal victory in October when an arbitrator found that the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) violated its collective bargaining agreement with the union by failing to pay into the health and welfare fund; refusing to allow teachers, paraprofessionals and clerical staff of the Algiers Charter School Association to return to work under the union/board contract; and cutting medical benefits without first negotiating with the union.

“These rulings are tremendous victories. They demonstrate that the school board was wrong when it disregarded the collective bargaining agreements and that it must be held accountable,” says UTNO president Brenda Mitchell. “UTNO will continue to fight for the rights of the teachers, paraeducators and clerical staff who gave so much to New Orleans Public Schools.”

After Hurricane Katrina, the school board disregarded numerous provisions of the collective bargaining contract. However, the arbitrator wrote: “I cannot overlook that [the Orleans Parish School] Board was contractually bound until June 2006.” He ruled that the school board lacked the right to stop contributing to the health and welfare fund as required by the collective bargaining agreement.

The arbitrator ordered the school board to pay for the missed health and welfare fund contributions from July 2005 to July 2006, a total of approximately $5 million. This will substantially increase the amount available to pay for covered employees’ benefits, the union says.

UTNO says this is the first round of several legal challenges to the school board’s treatment of members in the aftermath of Katrina.