The Indiana State Teachers Association terminated the president and vice president of the union representing ISTA professional staff, a sign of escalating tensions between the union and ISTA management amidst a reorganization.
The Indiana Professional Staff Organization filed unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board in March alleging ISTA management retaliated against three PSO members as they sought to bargain about a restructuring plan.
The union filed additional complaints with the NLRB this month alleging ISTA management surveilled union members and terminated PSO President Rick Scalf and Vice President Anita Vernon on April 24 to “discourage union activities.”
ISTA Executive Director Nate Williams said through a spokesperson the organization does not comment on personnel matters.
The PSO represents unionized professional staff employed by the ISTA, itself a labor union representing thousands of Hoosier educators.
Tensions between ISTA management and PSO union have already caught the attention of ISTA members, who picketed outside an ISTA meeting earlier this year in protest of management.
The Pioneer Classroom Teachers Association took a vote of no-confidence in Williams and fellow ISTA Vice President Jennifer Smith-Margraf, the union announced on Facebook.
“This decision was not made lightly,” the union wrote. “Our members believe current leadership is failing to uphold the values, transparency and advocacy that unions are built upon. We believe recent actions and decisions have been detrimental to ISTA as a whole and do not reflect the best interests of educators across Indiana.”
Justin Zartman, vice president of the National Staff Organization, the national union representing PSO, said ISTA management cited an internal policy that staff would not interfere with governance matters to justify the firings.
But the union believes ISTA targeted Scalf and Vernon because of their role as president and vice president of the PSO to chill union activity, he said.
“It’s troubling that the union — this is a state teacher union — is going after the local union officers, the antithesis of what a union should be doing,” Zartman said.
He said Scalf and Vernon want their jobs fully reinstated with back pay.
“I just want to get back to work and work with my members,” Vernon said. “We had several things in the works and need to get back at it.”
This article was written by Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Mackenzi Kelmann.