A Survey About Teachers' Working Conditions

This survey is more for the non KICNY teachers who visit this site. Though I suppose you could fill it out if you want to.

Hello Teachers --

Adjunct and contingent faculty work hard to help students succeed. You go the extra mile, often putting in long hours to prepare for classes or mentor students. You know how demanding your jobs are - but state and federal laws protecting employees are often based on faulty assumptions about the academic workforce that systematically underestimate the long hours contingent faculty work to earn their compensation. 

These faulty assumptions have serious consequences for contingent faculty. For example, coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program depends on the number of hours worked. Even salaried professional employees like adjuncts may have rights under certain wage and hour laws if they work long hours for low pay. And some employers are exploiting adjunct faculty, requiring them to work for little or no pay with few legal consequences. 

That's why we need to investigate faculty working conditions and advocate for improvements. 

Help tell the full story of what's happening in academic labor by documenting and analyzing just how much work you are doing, and reporting when you are doing it for free. 

Take this survey because the answers matter. 

The data will be aggregated and used to support national and state policy initiatives to improve eligibility rules for certain benefit programs and to increase accountability for employers who are exploiting their faculty. 

After completing the survey, you may be invited to take part in a confidential study to further explore adjunct working conditions and to do a follow-up interview. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our research coordinator Erica Rafford-Noyes at erica.rafford-noyes@seiu.org. 

Once again, here's the link to the survey: http://action.seiu.org/page/content/office-hours-2/ 

Best regards, 
Malini Cadambi Daniel 
Campaign Director, Adjunct Action

ESL Teachers Unite!

We've noticed another blog recently, called "ESL Teachers Unite".

The blog's posts are dedicated to encouraging ESL schools to organize, to help raise the abysmal standards teachers have to face. There are also some very handy links on the sidebar, much of it pertaining to California and Federal laws meant to keep teachers informed of their rights as workers.

They even used us an example in a post, as proof that ESL teachers can come together and fight for fair working conditions!


Link:
http://esltu.blogspot.com/

Kaplan General Membership Meeting, May 21st

Kaplan General Membership Meeting May 21

Our first membership meeting post-ratification! There are several important items of business to cover, so please make every effort to attend.  Topics include filling vacated unit officer positions, reviewing the election process for shop stewards and outlining the process for receiving the medical subsidy.  Come to the meeting and pick up a copy of your contract as well!

Please join us on Wednesday, May 21st, 5:30-7:30, Newspaper Guild, 1500 Broadway, 9th floor.  Please RSVP by sending an email with your name. 

COCAL XI

COCAL XI in New York City
August 4-6, 2014

The eleventh COCAL Conference will be held Monday, August 4 through Wednesday, August 6 at John Jay College in New York City. ​Plenaries, ​forums ​and ​workshops ​will ​deal ​with ​problems ​faced ​by ​contingent ​faculty ​in ​higher ​education ​in ​the ​U.S., ​Canada ​and ​Mexico, ​as ​well ​well ​as ​around ​the ​globe. ​Possible ​solutions ​and ​actions ​will ​be ​planned.

Teachers at for-profit schools like us at Kaplan are highly encouraged to attend.

http://cocalinternational.org/

Details about the NYC COCAL conference

About COCAL:

Montreal March
(Photo by Vicki Smallman)

The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor is a biennialconference and a network of North American activists working to improve higher education through the collective achievement of job reliability, livable wages, academic freedom, and time and resources for academic research and professional development for contingent academic laborers. COCAL is not affiliated with any single labor union and promotes grassroots contingent faculty organizing through events like Campus Equity Week. To achieve its aims, COCAL dedicates itself to alerting the broader community about the trends that undermine the tenets of higher education by staging media events, improving legislation concerning higher education and so-called accountability efforts, and identifying colleagues at institutions and assisting them in forming collective bargaining units and negotiating strong contracts.

Because COCAL’s world view recognizes that the fight for contingent faculty parallels the struggles of other contingent workers, many members also participate in The North American Alliance for Fair Employment (NAFFE), a broader network concerned about the growth of contingent work in general. COCAL sees the strength and freedom of faculty as a key to maintaining accessible, quality higher education and, ultimately, free inquiry for a democratic society.

http://cocalinternational.org/events.html

Articles of Interest

Recent articles about us:

Teachers Approve First Contract with Kaplan (Labor Press)

Kaplan Teachers Win Contract, Proving For-Profit Ed Can Be Unionized (In These Times)

How Kaplan teachers won (Socialist Worker)

Union Target: For-Profits (Inside Higher Ed)

Teachers Approve First Contract with Kaplan!

Press Release

Apr 17, 2014


Teachers at Kaplan International Centers, who teach English as a Second Language (ESL) and are members of TNG-CWA Local 31003, voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to ratify a first contract that would provide raises, workplace protections and a voice on the job.(*)

The teachers joined the Newspaper Guild of New York in June 2012 and are among a small handful of teachers in for-profit education who have union representation.(*)

"By banding together to form a union and taking bold steps to fight for a first contract that provides basic workplace protections, these teachers, most of whom are in their 20s and 30s, are an inspiration to their generation," said TNG-CWA Local 31001 President Bill O'Meara. "These are educated workers who knew they deserved more than they were getting and knew they needed a union to get it."(*)

The two-year contract includes a wage increase, access to a matching 401(k) plan, job security protections and more. It also would make some part-time teachers eligible for benefits for the first time.(*)

"I am proud that my colleagues voted to ratify this contract, and for their actions over the past two years demanding that Kaplan provide basic fairness to teachers," said Emily Lessem, a teacher who chairs the Guild unit at the school. "While this contract is far from perfect, it will provide job protections and benefits and have a powerful impact on Kaplan teachers in New York City and across the country."

First Tentative Agreement with Management Reached; Teachers Will Vote This Wed. April 16

Guild in tentative agreement

with Kaplan on initial contract

The Guild reached a tentative contract with Kaplan International Centers yesterday that would provide protections and a voice in the workplace for its newest members. Kaplan Guild members will get to vote on the package on April 16.

Kaplan teachers initially sought out the Guild in hopes of ending what they saw as wrongful or mysterious terminations, and getting company-paid benefits. ESL teachers at Kaplan’s three New York City schools won union representation in June 2012 and have been at the bargaining table since November of that year seeking a contract. Most Kaplan teachers are part-timers with no paid vacations, holidays or sick time, and no medical insurance. If the tentative agreement is ratified, some of those part-time teachers will be eligible for those benefits.

The proposed deal is for a two-year contract and would provide:

·         “Just cause” language for terminations

·         A grievance and arbitration procedure

·         A clear progressive discipline process

·         Paid bereavement leave for all employees

·         A minimum hourly rate for all employees

·         Protections from subcontracting of work

·         Increase in the prep time rate to $12 per hour from the current $8 per hour (NYC minimum wage)

·         Creation of a new position, senior part-time teacher, which will be entitled to paid holidays, vacation and personal days

·         A company-paid subsidy of $20.33 per pay period toward the cost of health insurance for employees who purchased insurance coverage (pay-periods are bi-weekly)

·         A 401(k) matching contribution of 1 percent for part-time employees (currently, part-time employees are not eligible to participate in the 401(k) plan) 

·         A 401(k) matching contribution of 2 percent for full-time employees, with an increase to a match of 3 percent after five years of service.

The Guild bargaining committee wanted to address many other issues, especially issues that affect part-time teachers. The committee was hoping to achieve paid vacations, holidays and sick time for all part-timers but Kaplan management would not agree. In the end, Kaplan agreed to provide vacation and holiday pay only to the seven current full-time teachers and the new group of senior part-time teachers (15 individuals who will be promoted if the contract is ratified).  Due to a New York City sick leave law that took effect on April 1, all Kaplan employees now have paid sick time.

While this is not the contract the bargaining committee or the Guild had hoped for, it still has some good provisions that all the Kaplan Guild members can be proud of. 

In addition, the bold action taken by Kaplan’s New York teachers, who voted for Guild representation by a two-to-one margin, had a great impact on Kaplan schools across the country. Because New York teachers had the courage to step up and seek a voice in the workplace, Kaplan teachers across the country have realized increases in compensation for prep time and other duties, new part-time positions were created in schools outside of New York, and all part-timers have access to a 401(k) plan and matching contributions. 

So, while the contract is not perfect and not where we wanted to be, it is a step in the right direction and a solid base from which to build for our next negotiations. It will be up to all Kaplan teachers to maintain the resolve and commitment to be strong and united when bargaining for the next contract begins in 2016.

RATIFICATION VOTES SETRatification meetings have been set for April 16 at the Newspaper Guild of New York, 1500 Broadway, Suite 900. You will need a picture ID to gain entrance to the building. Please note the lobby is under construction and a temporary entrance is located on 43^rd Street adjacent to the Brooklyn Diner. Meetings will be held at 10 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Only Guild members may attend, speak or vote at any of the meetings. If you are not a member, you may sign a membership card at the door before entering the meeting. If you can’t attend one of the scheduled meetings, you are welcome to stop by any time after 10 a.m. on April 16 to cast your vote. We have attached a PDF of the proposed contract so you may review it before the ratification meeting. You may also view it by clicking here.  If you have any questions please contact Guild Representative Anthony Napoli by email or phone at 212-730-1508. You also may contact any of the members of the bargaining committee whose names appear below.

Guild Bargaining Committee

Unit Chairperson Emily Lessem, Midtown - 917-817-4293
Shana Dagenhart, SoHo - 646-469-0325Michael Bennett, SoHo - 917-743-8538Ben Bush, formerly from ESB 
Jon Blanchette, formerly from ESB - 347-619-3391
Jonathan Ellis, Midtown - 917-617-6870
Paul Hlava, SoHo - 718-844-3964

Are Adjunct Professors the Fast-Food Workers of the Academic World?

A question to ask yourself:

As ESL teachers, working for a purely for-profit corporation...Do we, or even should we, categorize ourselves as "adjunct faculty"? 

It is true that most who officially bear the job title of adjunct faculty teach at public or private/non-profit institutions, many of which, (ok all of which) are institutions of far greater esteem than Kaplan. They also typically courses that earn students credits towards a college degree of some sorts.

However, before you answer this question, read through an article I came across just the other day. An excerpt:

Are Adjunct Professors the Fast-Food Workers of the Academic World?

By James Hoff
From The Guardian, Jan 24th, 2014

I am what's called an adjunct. I teach four courses per semester at two different colleges, and I am paid just $24,000 a year and receive no health or pension benefits. Recently, I was profiled in the New York Times [1] as the face of adjunct exploitation, and though I was initially happy to share my story because I care about the issue, the profile has its limits. Rather than use my situation to explain the systemic problem of academic labor, the article personalized – even romanticized – my situation as little more than the deferred dream of a struggling PhD with a penchant for poetry.

But the adjunct problem is not about PhDs struggling to find jobs or people being forced to give up their dreams. The adjunct problem is about the continued exploitation of a large, growing and diverse group of highly educated and dedicated college teachers who have been asked to settle for less pay (sometimes as little as $21,000 a year for full-time work) because the institutions they work for have callously calculated that they can get away with it. The adjunct problem is institutional, not personal, and its affects reach deep into our culture and society.

Though there are tens of thousands of personal stories like mine of economic hardship and lives ruined or put on hold, it is not to these stories that we should turn when we consider the exploitation of adjuncts in academia, but to our universal sense of justice. For the continued exploitation of adjuncts is, to put it bluntly, nothing less than unjust. Here's why:

Read the rest of the article HERE

Wow. Sound like a familiar eperience to any of you guys?

Now, having read through this article, let's return to the question at hand:

As ESL teachers, do we, or even should we, consider ourselves adjunct professors?  

As a particularly clever Englishman once said, "If an adjunct were not called an adjunct, would they not be any less exploited and underpaid?"

Or something like that.

The point is that the question, doesn't matter. What does matter however are the situations we both find ourselves in: Highly-skilled professionals, working difficult jobs in an industry with no lack of customer base, providing the very service that these customers shell out thousands of dollars for - yet being paid only just enough not to qualify for food stamps (unless you have a kid or two).  We must be doing our jobs passionately as well, because why else would someone with face all the challenges of being a teacher, just to take home the yearly salary of a restaurant worker? At least when I was washing dishes in I could listen to my discman (Electronic Skip Protection!), and take home a free meal every night.

The similarities are eerie, Too eerie, in fact.

I don't which came first, the chicken or the egg, but it's obvious now that the non-profits and for-profits are now just learning from each other - learning ways to deprive honest people of an honest living wage for an honest an worthwhile job done. But what I do know however is that the journey of the downward spiral into a world where 18K per year w/ out sick days or holiday pay simply just becomes what people expect out of a teaching job - is a journey that we share together. As Galileo began to reveal, and further solidified by Newton, and Einstein - Everything is relative.

One can't help what would become of these great minds had they been born in today's world. Would their genius have been enough to earn them passage from the purgatory that is the existence of an adjunct? Well, sure, probably. I mean, they were pretty damn smart of course. But how many of those of only slightly less genius, though still smart enough to make great significant contributions in the various fields of scientific research and education, simply have had to run away away from adjunct purgatory all together in order to pursue more mundane fields, robbing us of their possible contributions towards the greater good of mankind, but were done to out of necessity to put food on the table and shoes on their kids' feet?

I don't want to be disingenuous here however. There are differences in having a PhD in microbiology and lecturing at a major university is different than being a Kaplan ESL teacher. Many of us have an MA, but typically a BA is all that is required. A degree from a good university is worth a helluva lot more than a certificate from Kaplan Intl. Centers (although laws of relativity are still applicable of course; depending on the job desired, evidence one is proficient in English might be ten times more valuable than that MA in Art History).  However, our pay isn't based on how many courses we teach in a semester, we're straight wage per/hr workers. Part-time for us is around 25 teaching hours per week. We don't even have semesters even, we're open for business for the first 51 weeks of the year - then everybody gets laid off for a week from Christmas to New Year's eve.

I think, if nothing else, there's at least one to thing we could all agree with: We all know that there's nothing wrong with just wanting to be a teacher, and don't think our contributions to society merit a life of poverty.

Pigs on the Wing

Pictures from the Feb 20th rally in front of the SoHo branch:

Local President Bill O'Mera and CWA brethren

Fired up, ready to go!

ABF: Always be flyering

Missed you Scabby. Next time!

Big Pig

Mini-Pigs

Greedy Pigs

Links to articles:

http://animalnewyork.com/2014/protesters-fight-contracts-kaplan-scholastic/#

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/02/8540556/kaplan-international-teachers-seek-first-contract

http://www.newsguild.org/node/3739

Article in Capital

New article in Capital about our battle with management:

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/02/8540556/kaplan-international-teachers-seek-first-contract

Mugshots

Present Progressive No. 12 December 13 2013

Kaplan, school of hard noes, rejects whatever teachers ask

12/13/2013

Over and over at a Dec. 5 bargaining session, Kaplan negotiators said no to the marginal improvements in working conditions sought by a committee of Guild-represented English teachers.
On issues big and small, the answers were pretty much the same, no matter what the questions were. It was no to severance pay for layoffs (except those with less than a week’s notice), no to guaranteeing that probationary and temporary teachers would be laid off before any regular full- or part-timers, no to agreeing not to subcontract teaching work, no to arbitration rights on key issues and no to an “evergreen clause” that would keep the contract in effect after expiration during negotiations for a new one.

BARGAINING UPDATE

What about holiday pay for the 90 percent of Kaplan teachers who work part time?
“We have addressed holidays,” said Kaplan management lead negotiator Patricia Dunn.
“You said no,” replied Guild Rep. Anthony Napoli.
“That’s right,” said Dunn.
And so it went. Because of Kaplan’s just-say-no stance, its inability to provide much-needed information on health insurance and its refusal to respond to wage proposals the Guild made on Oct. 25, the session ended before lunch, with Guild negotiators demanding that management come back with health insurance information and a counterproposal on key economic issues – and noting that “no” is not a counterproposal.
No new bargaining date was set.

HEALTH CARE DATA STILL MISSING

Kaplan’s inability to provide key information about health care, which it blamed on its third party vendor, Augeo Benefits, is holding up the Guild’s consideration of management’s proposal that would provide a path to coverage for part-time employees who do not qualify for full-time insurance. Under its proposal, the company would provide a modest subsidy to part-time employees, which they could apply to their premiums after accessing public and private insurance exchanges through Augeo.

When pressed on why Augeo wasn’t providing the requested information, Kaplan legal counsel Stephanie Hart said, “It’s not like a real insurance company. They’re a clearing house.” 

Hart expressed frustration with Augeo’s inability to provide information for services employees will be legally required to sign up for by March. But Dunn reminded Guild negotiators, “We don’t have to do this, nor do we have to subsidize the medical plan.” She said Kaplan employees can go find their own insurance on the exchanges if they don’t like what Kaplan is offering.

SIX TECHNICAL, UNIMPORTANT COUNTERPROPOSALS

Negotiators for Kaplan International Colleges (KIC) offered six counterproposals to earlier Guild proposals, but they were mostly highly technical and of little significance. KIC is a substantial entity within Kaplan, which now comprises most of Graham Holdings Co. [NYSE: GHC], the successor to the Washington Post Co. following the company’s recent sale of The Washington Post newspaper.

One of KIC management’s counterproposals merely reinforced the existing right of both parties to pursue legal action through the courts or the National Labor Relations Board, as opposed to resolving disputes through the more efficient arbitration process, which the Guild prefers. Management has repeatedly refused to subject many key contract provisions to arbitration, instead wanting discretion to do whatever it wants while leaving Guild-represented teachers with only the cumbersome court system to dispute any breeches of the contract.

On layoff procedures, the Guild had proposed requiring that temporary and probationary workers be dismissed before regular part-time or full-time teachers. The Guild’s proposal also included severance pay for laid-off employees based on length of service. But in its counterproposal, Kaplan refused to guarantee that it would lay off temporary and probationary employees before other employees. It also provided no severance pay except in cases where a worker had been laid off with less than one week’s notice, in which case Kaplan would agree to provide one week’s pay. The layoffs in question are different than Kaplan’s routine cutting of classes at periods of low enrollment.

On determining which part-timers would qualify for company-provided health coverage under the new federal health care law, the company rejected a Guild proposal that there be joint agreement on nailing down a measuring period of weekly work hours that currently ranges from six to 12 months, demanding instead that management have the final say on the length of the measuring period.

The Guild Bargaining Committee of Kaplan Teachers

Emily Lessem, Unit Chair
Michael Bennett
Jon Blanchette
Ben Bush
Shana Dagenhart
Jon Ellis

English as a Foreign Language

Wanna learn English as a "foriegn" language? Kaplan Test Prep goes global and cuts costs, by outsourcing through "Certified Providers" in various countries. The result: web pages such as this one (in the Philippines).

As of Nov. 14th, France can now boast to have its own KCEP, the kind that sells "English as a foriegn language". Kaplan Test Prep had always operated directly in France until upper-management announced at 10 AM that there would be a "smooth transition". Employees had heard nothing of these plans until this time, and by 6 PM they found themselves locked out of their Kaplan email accounts and the website blocked.  

Very smooth, indeed.

Present Progressive No. 11 Novermber 22 2013

Kaplan: teachers 'well paid,' rejects paid holidays, vacations

11/22/2013

One baby step forward and two giant steps back.

After making minimal movement for the first time on pay and benefits last month, Kaplan managers returned to the bargaining table on Nov. 15 still opposing paid holidays and vacations for part-time teachers and unwilling to revise their least-they-can-do wage proposal.

BARGAINING UPDATE

The stonewalling came after the Guild bargaining committee of Kaplan ESL teachers agreed to scale back its economic goals by lowering its proposed starting pay for teaching, its pay rates for non-teaching duties and its proposed pay increases for the term of the contract. 

“There is a pretty compelling argument that these teachers are quite well paid,” said lead management negotiator Patricia Dunn in refusing to move management’s economic package in the teachers’ direction. “I believe we pay our teachers fairly and appropriately.”

Although Dunn said average pay for Kaplan teachers in the classroom was more than $21 an hour, their actual average is much lower. Since the company pays teachers different rates for different duties, including the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour for class preparation, the overall average is really $17.59 an hour, 18 percent less than the classroom average. Some teachers average as little as $14.06 an hour.

Guild negotiators, who had already accepted management’s $18 hourly minimum teaching rate for temps and newly hired employees still on their six-month trial periods, reduced their minimum pay proposal for teachers with four-year degrees who had passed their trial periods to $20 from $22. Management, however, still wants to be able to pay those teachers as little as $18 an hour for classroom time.

On class prep and other non-classroom duties, Guild negotiators cut their proposal to $12 from $13. Management is offering only $10 for prep work and essay grading, even though it raised the prep rate to $12 for teachers in every other U.S. city shortly after New York teachers voted for Guild representation in June 2012.

The Guild also cut its proposed pay increase to 3.5 percent for each of three years in the proposed contract from 5 percent, while management is sticking with the 1 percent increase it proposed in each of next two years for employees with a teaching rate of less than $25 an hour.

In its all-encompassing response to management's proposal, the Guild committee also reduced vacations for part-timers with at least one year of service to 10 days a year from a length-of-service scale that ranged from two weeks to five weeks, continued to ask for seven paid holidays for part-timers and reduced the number of teachers who would be eligible for company health care coverage by raising the number of hours needed to qualify to 20 hours a week from 17.

“We have moved significantly in a lot of areas,” Guild Rep Anthony Napoli told management. “I don't think we're all that far apart.”

NO PAY PROPOSAL FROM MANAGEMENTBut Dunn disagreed. “We don't think the proposal we got moves the needle anywhere near where it needs to be,” she said. “We are not willing to respond with a wage proposal given what we’ve seen today.”

Dunn replaced management negotiator Jay Kennedy after Kaplan’s parent company, the Washington Post Co., sold The Washington Post newspaper where Kennedy worked. The parent company said on Nov. 18 it would change its name to Graham Holdings Co., effective Nov. 29.

Management’s steadfast refusal to improve the pay and benefits of its teachers, 90 percent of whom work part time, provoked a rare outburst from the Guild’s usually composed counsel, Rich Corenthal.

“You have to step up and give them some basic benefits, some basic compensation,” Corenthal admonished the management bargaining team. “Stop being greedy.”

Management also refused to agree to use arbitration to resolve disputes over the appropriateness of work assignments or discipline, except for extreme cases where teachers have lost pay because they were suspended or fired. Similarly, Kaplan negotiators refused to agree to a joint teacher-management committee to determine how teachers should be evaluated, with Dunn calling the evaluations “a fundamental management right.”

On paid sick leave, management is still unwilling to do anything more for part-time teachers than the law requires. Beginning next April, New York City will require that all full-time and part-time employees accumulate one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work, up to a maximum of 40 hours per year, which could be carried over into the following year if they are not used.

“We have a business model,” said Dunn. “Most of these teachers are part-time by choice.”

Guild bargaining committee member Shana Dagenhart disagreed. “Kaplan has made a choice to keep the workforce part-time.”

The next bargaining session is scheduled for Dec. 5.

The Guild Bargaining Committee of Kaplan Teachers
Emily Lessem, Unit Chair
Michael Bennett
Jon Blanchette
Ben Bush
Shana Dagenhart
Jon Ellis

The Scabby Way

Meet our new mascot!

The Scabby Kaplan Way, equipped with everyone's favorite Screen Saver Power Amulet.

Coming soon to a New York street corner.

Why We Unionized - A message from Toronto

A Kaplan teacher from Toronto shared a message with us recently, one that we feel needs to be heard by more people. Here's what he told us when we asked why Toronto had decided to unionize in 2011:


        We unionised in Toronto because, Kaplan having bought out our family-owned school, we quickly saw the difference between a school which valued its teachers and one which did not. We unionised because our field has highly educated, trained and dedicated employees, a fact which Kaplan no doubt knows yet whose culture and practices attempt to deny. We unionised because this is not a transitory job and treating it as such is a disservice both to our students and the profession; because what we do is allowing others to live incredibly comfortable lives, and because there's no reason we should be willing to accept a sliver of the pie we’re baking. 

      We’re now into our third year of a signed collective agreement. We have a real salary, paid vacations, benefits, job security; in essence, signs of something a career might actually be made of. It wasn’t easy, and it’s not perfect now, but it is a wonderful start; and I’m convinced it’s far and away better than what would have been.

John Robertson
ESL Teacher, KPLI Toronto


(KPLI stands for Kaplan Pacific Language Institute, which is the name it gives to its ESL schools in Canada) hi lou

The Kaplan Teachers

Congratulations Micropower Teachers!

Congratulations to Micropower's teachers--both of English (ESL) and those in professional training--on their successful unionization vote over the weekend! Press release from New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) included below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Teachers at Career School in Chelsea Vote Decisively for Union Representation

New York, NY – September 14, 2013 – Management response to Hurricane Sandy was the galvanizing moment for many teachers at the Manhattan branch of Micropower Career Institute. Despite a fierce union busting effort by the owners of this family-run proprietary school (Sam Hiranandey, President and Lalit Chabria, Vice-President), teachers made their desire for unionization clear as a strong majority voted for union representation in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. 

The West 25th branch of Micropower markets ESL programs especially for students seeking visas for studying in the States, and offers Dental Assistant, Medical Assistant, and Computer Networking certificate programs. Tuition – which can run over $13,000 for some programs – isn’t cheap, but Micropower pays most of its teachers $15 to $18 per hour without any benefits, even for those who work full time (or more) hours. 

The owners’ profit margin became especially galling to many teachers after Hurricane Sandy when, despite not returning student’s tuition monies for the seven days the branch was closed, Micropower management refused to pay teachers for those days when school was not in session. A letter to management signed by about a third of the faculty which read in part, “…since most of New York’s educational institutions have acknowledged the efforts of their teachers by compensating them for lost wages, we the ESL faculty, appeal to the administration to acknowledge our contributions by compensating us for lost wages during the hurricane” was ignored and shortly thereafter teachers contacted organizers at New York State United Teachers for help with starting a union drive. 

Management retained the notorious anti-worker law firm of Jackson Lewis and aside from the typical barrage of letters sent to workers, management also made them sit through near daily group and one-on-one meetings, often directing teachers to leave their students with writing assignments during the two to three-hour-long meetings they were forced to attend. The Union filed close to half a dozen charges against management during the campaign for alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act including illegal surveillance of employees, retaliation for union activity, and illegal transference of work. Despite all the pressure, workers voted 21-12 in favor of union representation. Now they will turn their focus to preparing for negotiations.


Contact: 
Daniel Esakoff or Julie Berman 
New York State United Teachers
organize@nysutmail.org 
Phone: 212-989-3470 Fax: 212-989-8154 

"I Want to Jump to $22 an Hour."

         Well, if being deemed unworthy of vacation time by our employers wasn't bad enough, now they're telling us that we should jump up and down for it. 

It's a social media publicity stunt called "Jump to Kaplan". Post pictures of yourself jumping on Instagram, write the words "I want to jump to <a city with a Kaplan>", insert the predetermined hashtags - you get the idea. Best jumper gets a seven day vacation. Obviously this marketing campaign's intended targets are prospective students, but for some reason the powers that be saw fit to give us the chance to participate.

"I want to jump to $22 an hour" one teacher joked, when hearings this.

We even get two hashtags to use, #jumptokaplan and #staffjumptokaplan. However, could they really not foreseen the irony in having employees jumping up and down for a chance to win what's really just a fundamental benefit, one that they've been deprived of? What's the next one going to be, post pictures of your worst injuries to win a trip to a doctor's office? (hashtag #JumptotheHospital). And let's not forget that since the "winning" teacher probably isn't going to have five unused vacation days to cash in during this trip either, PB & J and Ramen noodles will still probably be joining them in their travels.

All that said, teachers in NYC are actually excited to participate. Check out some submissions by 

instagrammer Jumptoabetterkaplan: 

                                                   

                                                        

Present Progressive No. 10 August 28th 2013

Kaplan makes small agreements but refuses teachers basic rights 

08/28/2013

After over a month lapse in negotiations, the Guild and Kaplan International Center’s (KIC) negotiating teams sat down at the table last Thursday to resume discussions on many of the outstanding proposals such as sick time, leaves of absence, safety and security, and bereavement leave. Despite reaching some tentative agreements at the session, KIC continued to repeat their mantra of “not interested” when it came to giving teachers basic rights.

PAY:

Although the Guild tried to reintroduce discussion about wages, KIC’s bargaining team stated they had “no change” and offered no counter-proposal despite our last wage proposal which came closer to meet KIC. At the July 18 session, we reached a tentative agreement with management: accepting their starting rate of $18 per hour for new hires and temporary employees. However, we only accepted this rate for the 6 month probationary period, after which the employee would jump to a higher pay rate. Although they “appreciated” this proposal which met them on their starting rate, they were unwilling to further discuss wages, a central issue for Guild members.

BEREAVEMENT LEAVE:

KIC continues to refuse to give part-timers paid bereavement leave – a standard in the Guild’s other contracts. In their proposal, they offer full-timers up to 5 days of paid bereavement leave for immediate family yet they won’t even offer a single day to part-time employees who make up more than 90% of their workforce.

SICK TIME:

After much back and forth about sick time in the last few sessions, KIC's last proposal offers a complicated system for accruing sick hours. After we discussed KIC's proposal at length during a caucus, we offered KIC a simple system of awarding 40 hours of sick time for part-timers and 48 hours for full-timers at the beginning of each year with no carryover in lieu of employees having to earn 1 hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. This would be straightforward for the employee and would simplify Kaplan's record keeping of sick time. The management reps said they will get back to us.

SAFETY AND SECURITY:

The Guild and KIC reached a tentative agreement on the entirety of the Safety and Security Article which addresses workplace surveillance and drug testing.

We've come a long way from KIC's initial proposal which had both the right to install cameras everywhere except the bathroom and randomly drug test employees. KIC has now agreed to inform the Guild prior to installing any new surveillance equipment and new equipment will only be installed in the event of an investigation. Once the investigation has been completed, KIC has agreed to remove the surveillance equipment. A full agreement was also reached on KIC’s right to establish a drug testing program. If a program is to be implemented, KIC must negotiate with the Guild on the terms of the program, and employees could only be tested if there is reasonable suspicion. The program would also include an Employee Assistance Program and a period of time for employees who test positive for drugs or alcohol to correct the problem.

PERSONAL LEAVES OF ABSENCE:

The Guild agreed to KIC's proposal to continue with the 90 days leaves of absence for both full-timers and part-timers until they change their company-wide policy to 30 days leave provided that they include a clause which would allow managers to allow longer leaves at their discretion. This would allow employees to continue to take advantage of maybe the only benefit of working at Kaplan: the ability to take off extended periods of time.

STALLED PROGRESS:

Although both parties were able to come to some agreements across the table, KIC continues to skirt around the outstanding issues such as wages, vacation pay, holiday pay and health insurance. They also hold steadfast to several unreasonable, and even inhumane, positions as illustrated in their refusal to pay part-timers for bereavement leave. In addition, KIC has proposed an employee who is absent from work for three or more days without notifying KIC, will be deemed as voluntarily resigning on the fourth day of such an absence without recourse to the grievance and arbitration process. The Guild has brought to their attention that certain circumstances, such as hospitalization, might make it impossible for an employee to contact KIC but management did not seem to care. Not only would the employee lose their job, but because they “voluntarily resigned,” the employee would be ineligible for unemployment and the Guild would not be able to arbitrate the issue under management’s proposal.

We hope to hear more from KIC about some of the key items in the next bargaining session, scheduled for Friday, September 20, 2013.

____________________________________________________________

Corresponding update from Management:

POSITIVE TALKS, SOME PROGRESS

            In a bargaining session last Thursday, KIC and the Guild continued to make some progress in a few areas, and talks were professional and constructive.  We reached one more tentative agreement last week:  the parties agreed to a provision that KIC had proposed on “Safety and Security,” which allows KIC to take appropriate measures, in consultation with the Guild, to protect the safety and security of KIC’s employees and property.

On the economic front, KIC and the Guild have also made some limited progress:

Wages:   After much discussion, KIC and the Guild agreed in July to set the “contract minimum” rate for teaching hours at $18/hour.  That means that KIC can hire new teachers at that rate in the future, while preserving the right to pay teachers above that rate based on skills and experience.   The parties remain apart on other wage provisions, including the non-teaching prep time rate, which KIC has proposed to increase to $9/hour from the current $7.25/hour.  

Benefits:   The parties have spent a lot of time discussing benefits for part-time employees.  After KIC made a proposal in June to provide up to 15 hours of paid sick leave to certain part-time employees, New York City passed a new “Sick Time” law that will require employers in New York City, on or after April 1, 2014, to give part-time employees up to 40 hours of paid sick leave a year.  To ensure compliance with the new law, KIC modified its sick leave proposal to allow eligible part-time employees in New York City to earn up to 40 hours of paid sick leave a year when the law becomes effective; rather than reduce sick leave for its full-time employees, who now earn more than the new law requires, KIC has proposed to allow current full-time teachers to continue to earn up to six days of sick leave each year.

While we made some progress last week, several important topics still need to be addressed at the table, including important proposals on Management and Academic Rights, Grievance and Arbitration, and Access.  Over the course of several sessions, KIC has asked the Guild to make counter-proposals in these important areas, and we hope that they will be forthcoming at our next meeting scheduled for September 20.   As we told the Guild last week, we need to see movement on the important operational issues that impact KIC’s business and that inform the economics of a collective bargaining agreement with the Guild.

            KIC’s Bargaining Committee

Present Progressive Vol. 9 July 17th 2013

After students weigh in, Kaplan contract talks get more civil

07/17/2013

Students from around the world studying English at Kaplan International Centers in New York City signed petitions on July 3 in support of their Guild-represented ESL teachers, who are bargaining for basic benefits like paid sick leave, health care and paid vacations. The following day, the school closed for Independence Day, a day for which the students paid, but teachers were not paid.

Slight improvement on pay, sick leaves

With Kaplan students calling on company management to treat their teachers fairly, first-contract negotiations for Guild-represented ESL teachers took on a more civil tone on Monday and led to something that had been largely missing since the talks began almost eight months ago: actual bargaining.

BARGAINING UPDATE

While there were no breakthroughs, and the two sides are still apart on several issues, management representatives for Kaplan International Centers (KIC) engaged in give-and-take discussions with the Guild negotiators and even revised some of their proposals, albeit only to bring them into compliance with the law and/or current conditions.

It was a marked departure from most previous sessions in which the management reps asked almost no questions about Guild proposals, preferring instead to confer among themselves and then silently issue written responses. From the Guild’s perspective, the development is significant since only a robust exchange can enable the two sides to fully understand one another’s needs, a prerequisite to any fair settlement.

Five Kaplan students from abroad who are studying English as a second language came to Monday's session to express support for their teachers and to deliver a petition – signed by more than 425 ESL students at KIC's three New York facilities – that urged management to improve pay and basic benefits.

“Negotiating a contract with Kaplan teachers that includes sick days, health care and fair pay for prep time will benefit teachers and students alike and make Kaplan the great learning center it claims to be,” said the petition, which was addressed to Kaplan CEO David Jones. The petition was presented to Jay Kennedy, management’s chief negotiator. A copy will be sent to Jones.

KIC teachers in New York currently make the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage to prepare for classes and about 90 percent of them get no paid sick leave or health care coverage because they are considered part-time employees.

‘NO TEACHERS … NO KAPLAN’Before the start of bargaining, the students briefly addressed the four management reps at the table, calling on them to improve their teachers’ pay and benefits. They also complained about the high fees they were charged and at least one said he would urge the agent in Brazil who connected him with Kaplan to stop referring students to the school until the teachers’ employment conditions improve.

“Kaplan exists only because of the teachers,” the Brazilian student said. “If there are no teachers, there is no Kaplan.”

“This company could be better,” a Ukrainian student told the managers. “You really have to change the treatment, the attitude toward the teachers.”

Most of the student petition signatures were collected at lively and conspicuous events outside two of the three KIC facilities in New York on July 3. Teachers, some dressed in Independence Day celebratory garb, discussed their struggle to improve their pay and benefits with students in a festive atmosphere a day before school closed for a holiday for which students paid, but teachers received no pay, as one student noted (pictured at right).

At the table on Monday, management improved its pay and sick leave proposals, at least to bring them in line with what recently enacted legislation will soon require.

-- Pay. Management negotiators raised their proposed hourly prep time rate to $9, which is where the New York State minimum wage will be at the end of 2015, from $8, which would have run afoul of the state’s minimum wage law at the end of next year. They also upped their starting rate for teaching to $18 an hour, the rate the company already pays, from the $17 they had previously proposed. The Guild accepted management’s $18 starting rate, but stuck to its prep time pay proposal of the greater of $13 or half of a teacher’s teaching rate.

-- Sick Leave. Management improved its paid sick leave offer to comply with a New York City law that takes effect next April. Beginning April 1,  full-time and part-time teachers would accumulate one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work, up to a maximum of 40 hours per year, which could be carried over into the following year if they are not used. Part-timers currently get no paid sick leave. Given the law’s 40-hour annual carryover allowance, the Guild proposed an 80-hour maximum of paid sick leave that could be used in a given year and also proposed allowing teachers to apply their sick leave in increments of as little as three hours, the duration of a typical class. The management negotiators said they would respond later.  Under management’s proposal, full-time teachers would continue to receive six sick days a year until April 1, when they would be transitioned to the new sick leave plan.

-- Leaves of Absence. Management improved its offer to worsen the current KIC leave of absence policy. The current KIC policy allows all teachers to take unpaid leaves of up to 90 days. Management wants the ability to reduce maximum leave terms to 30 days during the contract, which it says is consistent with a company-wide policy change that is in the works. Before Monday, management had wanted to exclude part-timers from eligibility for leaves. Under its revised proposal, however, part-time teachers could take up to 30 days, the same as full-timers, when the new company-wide policy takes effect.  The Guild proposed making the maximum leave period 45 days when the new policy kicks in. In the meantime, however, management proposed that all teachers remain eligible to request leaves of up to 90 days.  

-- Surveillance and Drug Testing. Progress wasmade on both fronts. Management originally wanted the right to subject all teachers to random drug testing, but has since agreed to limit testing to instanceswhere triggering events give rise to reasonable suspicion of substance abuse. Similarly, surveillance equipment could be installed in work areas only as part of an investigation following an event that triggers reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. The Guild will have a counter proposals aimed at safeguarding employee rights on both of these issues for the next session.

-- Bulletin Board. Management agreed to install bulletin boards for Guild business at its facilities.

No further bargaining sessions were scheduled at Monday’s session.

The Guild Bargaining Committee of KIC Teachers

Emily Lessem, Unit Chair
Michael Bennett
Jon Blanchette
Ben Bush
Shana Dagenhart
Jon Ellis