The Akron Education Association sent a cease and desist letter to Akron Public Schools over accusations of replacing union jobs with non-union ones.
The alleged “union-busting” is over the 55 positions that AEA teachers have filled at the district’s central office. Those teachers were all reassigned to classroom teaching jobs ahead of next school year. But the union is alleging the district is hiring new people outside of union coverage to do the work those teachers were doing at the central office.
The letter, dated June 26, calls for the district to stop the hiring under the newly created job postings and to bring the teachers who were already doing those jobs back to central office.
AEA attorney Don Malarcik said if the district does not comply with the cease and desist, the union will escalate the matter into a union grievance and an unfair labor practice filing.
“That’s clear union-busting,” Malarcik said. “You can’t take a union position, eliminate it, and then create essentially the same position and call it something else.”