Teachers at Louisiana charter schools are no longer considered under the authority of a federal board, in a setback for union organizing.
In late January, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) denied an appeal from New Orleans’ teachers union, The United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO), to remain involved in a union effort at one of the city’s state-authorized charter schools, as first reported by Verite News.
The NLRB, an independent federal agency, protects the rights of private-sector workers to form unions and engage in collective bargaining by investigating labor violations and certifying unions.
The board first ruled last April that it no longer had jurisdiction over the union at Lycée Français International de la Louisiane, formerly Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans, where teachers voted to unionize in 2024.
In its ruling, the NLRB cited a state law signed shortly after the vote, which it said reclassified charter school staff as public employees. The law gives public boards that authorize charters the ability to remove their private board members under certain circumstances.
The decision places charter staff statewide beyond the agency’s authority, leaving them without an outside body to turn to when dealing with school leadership. Lycée’s board challenged the school’s union vote under the law, leading to the NLRB’s ruling.
“It leaves us with fewer alternatives, but it doesn’t leave us with no alternatives,” said UTNO’s president, Dave Cash.
Cash said teachers can still pressure school leadership directly through strikes and other actions.
“Nobody wants to shut down a school,” he said. “But if the conditions at the school are not good, and management isn’t listening, then teachers have to decide how important it is to them.”
UTNO represents teachers at three New Orleans schools: Benjamin Franklin High School, Morris Jeff Community School and Bricolage Academy.
In the New Orleans charter system, schools must unionize individually, a difficult effort in a system where teachers are at-will employees — meaning they can be fired at anytime for any reason, or no reason at all.
Other New Orleans schools have technically unionized — an often years-long process — but like Lycée, have been unable to get management to recognize them or reach a contract through collective bargaining.
