District Court Judge Crystal Eller issues a strike injunction against the teachers union during a hearing at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023.
Published Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023 | 12:54 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023 | 6:25 p.m.
A Clark County District Court judge has issued an injunction blocking teachers from participating in the kind of large-scale sickouts that have recently closed schools and disrupted classes.
“The court finds that a strike has occurred,” Judge Crystal Eller ruled Wednesday, noting “an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence that cannot be ignored.”
The court order comes as the Clark County School District and the Clark County Education Association teachers union remain deadlocked in contract negotiations.
Eller said it was “preposterous” to conclude so many teachers were coincidentally sick Tuesday at four different Las Vegas area schools, forcing their closure.
“It is more likely an indicator that there is a concerted effort to do exactly what has been threatened to be done by Mr. Vellardita and other people in public messages and public comments, and that is to systematically strike,” she said, referencing CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita.
Since Sept. 1, eight schools have closed for a day because of a lack of staffing, while staff reductions forced two other schools to make classroom adjustments to stay open. Wednesday, more than 70% of teachers at Newton Elementary in Henderson called out sick, forcing the cancellation of classes, according to the district.
Strikes by government employees, including public school teachers, are illegal in Nevada. The law defines “strike” broadly to include work stoppages, slowdowns, sickouts and interference with operations.
In a brief statement to reporters after the hearing, Vellardita said the union respectfully disagreed with Eller’s ruling.
“Unfortunately, the script today in front of the court was the story that this union engaged in an illegal strike, and we didn’t do that,” he said. “I think there’s going to be some acknowledgment at some point that teachers are very angry in this School District.”
CCEA and the district are battling over a new two-year contract, which the union wants to include 18% raises, among other demands.
The district, which has offered 11% raises over two years, declared an impasse in negotiations Tuesday after 11 bargaining sessions failed to produce a compromise. The contract matter will now go to arbitration.
One obstacle in the negotiations has been how CCSD has proposed to spend funds appropriated by Nevada Senate Bill 231, which set aside $250 million for teachers and support staff at public school districts statewide. The bill was signed into law earlier this year.
The possibility that funds won’t be available after this biennium, because of a sunset date written into the bill, is one of the points of contention in the negotiations between CCSD and the union. CCSD has been hesitant to commit to permanent salary increases with money district officials argue comes with no assurances of flowing past mid-2025.
In a statement, CCSD said it was thankful for the judge’s decision.
“Because of the evidence of coordinated work stoppages by CCEA and its members, the court imposed a preliminary injunction to prevent any ongoing disruptions to the school district’s operations,” the district said. “This action protects the children of the Clark County School District so they can receive the education they are entitled to.”
Today is not the first time in recent weeks the contract fight has landed the parties in court.
The School District sued the union in July, citing comments made by union members and leadership that the district interpreted as credible threats to strike. Union leaders and members said “work actions,” as its executive director phrased them, were possible if the union did not have a new contract by Aug. 26.
At an Aug. 22 hearing, a judge said she found the union executive director’s comments “concerning” but stopped short of issuing the injunction the district had sought against the CCEA, saying she didn’t have enough evidence to warrant it at the time.
The district filed another motion Monday, after three schools canceled classes the previous week because of teacher sick calls, seeking an emergency hearing to again consider an injunction to prevent what CCSD said had gone from threat to reality.
CCSD attorney Ethan Thomas said Wednesday that a rolling strike was clearly underway. He said a union response that colds, flu and COVID-19 were circulating made “a mockery of common sense.”
“I will admit that they have been as clever as they possibly can be in trying to hide the fact that there has been a clear plan in place to strike. Ever since we filed the complaint and initially sought this motion, some of the rhetoric of the defendant Vellardita has certainly cooled down and they’ve clearly moved toward working in more surreptitious ways.”
Union attorney Bradley Schrager acknowledged that some schools have closed because of high teacher absences, but said there was no linkage to his clients.
“I don’t disagree that something has happened in the world. What I disagree with is that my clients bear statutory and legal responsibility for that given any of the evidence that’s been shown to this court.”
Eller, however, noted the number and widespread nature of school closures and what CCSD presented as an anonymous whistleblower complaint from a teacher at Southwest Career and Technical Academy, which was closed Tuesday. Although she did not admit into evidence an unauthenticated photo of what appears to be a slide at a CCEA meeting with the words “rolling school outs” and “selective sick outs,” Eller did allow Thomas to prop a poster-sized print of the image on an easel as “demonstrative.”
She ordered CCEA to tell its members the terms of the order, which the union did later Wednesday in a mass email.
According to a copy of the message obtained by the Sun, the union said it had not and would not encourage, engage in or coordinate any concerted sickouts, and that teacher strikes were illegal. The union also told its members that teachers who engage in sickouts are subject to penalties including termination, and the union itself and its officers may also be held in violation. State law allows unions defying a no-strike order to be fined up to $50,000 per day, and officers up to $1,000 each per day.
The union also noted that it intended to appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court, and that the ruling “will not deter CCEA members in our fight for the contract we deserve.”
Eller said she was sympathetic to the situation.
“We want our teachers and our office staff to be fully and completely compensated and have the benefits that they deserve,” she said. “But in the ’70s the state decided that because of the public service that teachers perform, they cannot be allowed to strike. You guys are out on the front lines, like the military, like first responders. There are children counting on you, there are families that need to go to work and feed their families and put roofs over their heads that are counting on you guys to show up and follow the law and abide by the law and do your job.”
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