CCSD support staff union leadership in trouble after challenge

Education Support Employees Association Executive Director Brian Christensen confirmed in an email late Wednesday that he had resigned from the union on Feb. 24. A spokesman for the Nevada State Education Association, which represents the union at the state level, said he could not comment on personnel changes.

At a recent, significant meeting of the Nevada Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board, no ESEA leaders were present, including President Doug McCain. A message left for McCain was not returned. A lawyer for the ESEA did attend the meeting.

The Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board at its March 12 meeting discussed holding a runoff election between ESEA and Teamsters Local 14 to decide who will represent district support staff at the bargaining table.

That election could prove to be the downfall of ESEA, which has represented school district support staff for more than 40 years.

A decadelong fight between the two unions came to a head earlier this year when 71 percent of workers who voted in a special election backed the Teamsters.

However, only 5,190 votes were cast, which was short of the supermajority the Nevada Supreme Court has ruled is needed for one union to oust another.

The ESEA has represented Clark County School District support staff for more than 40 years. A supermajority means the Teamsters needed 50 percent plus 1 of all 11,263 district support staff to choose the union, not just a majority of those who took part in the election.

In February, the three-member Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board voted to change its 13-year-old policy that requires a supermajority for one union to oust another, meaning that the Teamsters would only need a simple majority at the next election — set for the fall — to take over. A date for the election will be set at the next meeting and ballots will be counted in December.

A month ago, ESEA officials said they planned to challenge the decision. As of Wednesday no challenge had been filed. Even if ESEA did so, Teamsters Local 14 could have another route to challenge the ESEA.

State law requires unions that represent government workers to have more than 50 percent of a group as members to be able to bargain on their behalf. But support staff union membership appears to have fallen below 50 percent in recent years.

A recent public records request by the Review-Journal showed that less than half — 5,512 — of the district’s support staff had membership dues deducted from their paychecks as of Feb. 4, 2015. Paycheck deductions are not definitive, though, because it’s not known how many workers pay their dues another way.

Meanwhile, the Teamsters recently filed a public records request for the names, job classification and work location for members of the Clark County Education Association, the union representing the district’s 17,000 teachers.

The move could be a prelude to an organizing effort by the Teamsters to represent teachers, as well as the support staff. CCEA and ESEA are the two largest education unions in Clark County.

Contact Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Find him on Twitter: @fjmccabe