The Guild sent the following email to all Kaplan teachers earlier today. Please feel free to comment in the section below.
Just imagine: a better future is within your reach.
A chance to have a voice in your workplace, to be able to bargain for things like a commonsense pay scale, sick pay and vacation time – it’s all going to be at your fingertips when you vote on Thursday. You will be exercising the most democratic right you have on the job—the right to organize with one another for better pay and working conditions.
Since the June 7 Guild election was set about a month ago, we’ve held our emails to a minimum. We’ve kept a very respectful distance and let you get the information yourselves, as many of your co-workers have already done. Despite the misleading, false and even illegal things Kaplan executives have said about us, we haven’t badmouthed the company or its managers. After all, when this election is over, we expect to deal with them, and there’s no point in needlessly poisoning the atmosphere. When Kaplan’s parent, the Washington Post Co., owned Newsweek magazine (where the Guild represents editorial employees), we had a good working relationship with management. There’s no reason we can’t get along with Kaplan managers too.
Kaplan, on the other hand, has hired one of the premier union-busting firms in the country, Jones Day. At this point, the company has surely racked up a bill in the tens of thousands of dollars to try to keep KIC union-free. This is why you’ve been inundated with flyers, shuttled off to meetings with “impartial experts,” had you classes cancelled and doubled up, inconveniencing your students and fellow co-workers and pressured to the point where some teachers have left meetings crying. Hey, we heard the sandwiches were good, but doesn’t it tell you something when management has to try this hard to keep the Guild out?
Unfortunately, these kinds of things often happen in campaigns like this. Managers get increasingly desperate and testy before an election. They are under an incredible amount of pressure from the company to keep you from organizing. At times, they have said and done things that crossed the line. For example, it’s illegal to suggest that they will improve conditions if you reject the Guild, but will steadfastly refuse to make anything better if you go with the Guild (how can you have it both ways?). We’ve notified the National Labor Relations Board and management has responded by cleverly trying to cover up its tracks. Again, these things happen.
No matter how many times managers have told you otherwise, they will not make things better if the Guild just goes away. Are you supposed to believe if you “give the company a year,” as they’ve suggested, that they’ll provide you with the benefits and pay you deserve, when they have no obligation to do so?
Let’s remember why and how we got here.
- For years, you’ve worked under conditions unsuited to the professionals that you are. Not only has Kaplan lowered teaching pay in recent years, but it uses a needlessly complex pay scheme that nickels and dimes you with rates as low as the $7.25 hourly federal minimum wage.
- Because your managers discourage you from putting in for all of the time you need to prep for classes, you often wind up working for free. This is considered wage theft.
- When you’re sick you’ve got no choice but to bring your germs to class, or lose a day’s pay.
- If you want a week or two off each year, it’s at your expense. Holiday pay? Forget about it.
- You’ve been forced to take an uncompensated “float week,” despite Kaplan charging students for that week.
- You’ve been double-banked into full-time hours while being treated as a part-timer without full-time benefits. Management did this for years to avoid paying overtime.
- For those who want full-time employment, you’ve been told there aren’t enough hours, while management hires an endless pool of new teachers at part-timers.
- Co-workers of yours have disappeared off the schedule, many without notice or cause. When you’ve reached out to them, you’ve found there had been few, if any, attempts to progressively discipline or assist them.
And these are just a few of the unprofessional working conditions at Kaplan that have festered for years. There was no reason to believe management would ever fix them. And so, several teachers decided to do something about it. They checked out the Guild. They checked out a union that represents teachers. They decided to go with us. And we’re glad they did. A large majority of Kaplan ESL teachers quickly agreed. They showed their support by signing cards designating the Guild as their workplace representatives.
The New York Guild has more than 2,800 members, mostly at news organizations like The New York Times, Thomson Reuters, Consumer Reports and Time Inc. We also represent employees who work for Standard & Poor’s, in retail and even for another union. As far as we know, New York Guild members are overwhelmingly satisfied with the service they’re getting, and that includes members currently embroiled in difficult contract negotiations. Do we represent teachers? No, we represent professional workers. Most of their needs are similar, and we know you’ll soon agree. And to the small degree that they’re not, we learn very fast.
At the Guild, we're as passionate about improving workers' lives as you are about teaching. It's what we do for a living and we're proud of it. Our function is to facilitate. You'll elect your representatives, you'll discuss and vote on your proposals and we'll help you get them. We know the nitty gritty about benefit plans, employment terms and negotiating. We have have the expertise and the resources, but you'll be calling the shots.
Despite what Kaplan’s lawyers have said about the Guild not being able to promise you anything, here are some guarantees we can give you if the Guild is voted in on June 7:
- You will elect colleagues who will represent your interests and sit at the bargaining table alongside someone from the Guild.
- Every teacher will be asked for bargaining priorities and proposals and will get to discuss and vote on the package that goes to management.
- A contract settlement will have to be approved by a majority of your colleagues on the bargaining team.
- A contract settlement must be ratified by a majority vote open to all teachers.
- No Guild contract will deny you the right to negotiate higher pay or to deal directly with your supervisor about operational issues like scheduling.
Collective bargaining can be challenging, yes, but it beats the alternative. That’s why union members make 29 percent more than nonunion workers on average. If collective bargaining weren’t so critical to the terms and conditions of your employment, do you really think management would be freaking out over it?
Kaplan is not the first, nor will it be the last, company to claim it doesn’t “need to agree to anything at the bargaining table.” But here are the facts: every Guild contract provides for time off, sick days, vacation, health insurance, just cause and grievance and arbitration procedures. Will Kaplan be the first company to break that standard? We highly doubt it.
As most of your co-workers have already made clear, without a union Kaplan management is free to fire you at will and has ZERO obligation to discuss your terms and conditions of employment. As the Kaplan Handbook states: “Employment at Kaplan is at-will. Kaplan reserves the right to modify, supplement, deviate from or rescind this [Handbook] at any time, with or without notice, as it deems appropriate in its sole and absolute discretion.”
After the votes are counted on June 7, all of this will change. June 8 will truly be a new day. You won't be at-will employees anymore. You'll have the right to bargain. And from that, all things are possible.
Imagine that!
In Unity,
The Newspaper Guild of New York
Local 31003, CWA
