Labor Board Sides With WCASD Board in Response to Teachers Union Complaint

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has ruled that West Chester Area School District Board Member Heidi Adsett did not violate state labor laws when she sent a press release to Patch and other media outlets reacting to a teacher's union announcement instructing members to "work to contract".

In the May 23rd press release Adsett said “I call upon area State Representative Dan Truitt and the Pennsylvania general assembly to enact a law that would eliminate tenure and provide that Union leaders such as Dan Burke be fired for calling for ‘Work-To-Contract’ action against our students."

The teachers' union filed a formal complaint about that press release, charing that it illegally targeted a specific teacher.  The Labor Relations Board disagreed, siding with Adsett and the School Board and saying that Adsett's press releases contained no actual or veiled threats.
Board Member Adsett's statement was a request for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to prospectively eliminate tenure and to provide the District With the authority to prospectively fire employes Who urge other employes to "work-to-contract." However, Board Member Adsett's statement and the other statements at issue in your charge do not contain any actual or veiled threats or promises of benefits and do not appear to be an attempt to negotiate directlywithindividual bargaining unit members.

In a response to the decision School Board President Vince Murphy expressed gratitude that the PLRB decision removed what would have been a distraction in the bargaining process, saying, "We can now get back to the main issue of getting a contract agreement that is fair to our teachers and affordable for our taxpayers."

According to a posting on the school district website the Teachers Association has 20 days to file an appeal of the Labor Relations Board decision not to hear the teacher union complaint.

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