What to do when your employer’s incoming human resources (HR) director openly and publicly expresses hostility to your workplace rights before they’ve even started in their new role? That was the challenge facing leaders of two AFT Connecticut-affiliated PreK-12 and paraprofessionals and school-related personnel (PSRP) locals and their labor siblings ahead of this year’s “back to school” season. Their rapid response was a masterclass in mobilizing members, building alliances and shaping opinions that more than met the moment.
Norwalk Public Schools (NPS)’ recently hired HR director was introduced to the community at a local board of education (BOE) meeting in late July. In her first public remarks as a member of the district’s senior leadership team, she set a highly confrontational tone by announcing she was ready to “tackle those unions.”
Labor leaders representing NPS educators, support staff and building administrators were well-positioned to quickly develop an appropriate plan of action. They had been working together for more than seven years in coalition, effectively addressing and resolving challenges facing the members of their four individual unions.
Click here for press reporting last year on their collective advocacy to fund students’ futures.
“If ever we needed a reminder of the value of coalitions, this crisis presented it,” said Hope Wyatt, the president of our Norwalk Federation of Education Personnel. “The key here was that we long ago got all the unions representing the district’s workforce together. That’s how we had the infrastructure in place to respond when this storm broke out in the middle of summer,” she added.
NPS union coalition leaders quickly drafted a joint statement to the BOE calling out the HR director’s antagonistic remarks. They reminded school officials that “employees’ working conditions are our students’ learning conditions” and that “what Norwalk’s kids and families need and deserve are effective and harmonious relationships.”
With the help of AFT Connecticut’s communications department, coalition leaders also simultaneously released the statement to regional press outlets and published it on social media. The swift action empowered educators, school support staff and building administrators to gain public support for their demands by defining the HR director’s remarks as harmful to student learning.
Click here for a graphic and link to the coalition’s statement posted on X.
In district officials’ initial public response, they attempted to downplay the incident as merely a “poor choice of words.” NPS’ chief financial officer further tried to appease labor leaders by promising the HR director who’d just threatened them would reverse course and seek a productive working relationship.
The lack of accountability and failure of any elected members of the BOE to respond meant escalation was necessary. Coalition leaders set about engaging union members on an unprecedented scale in order to send a clear, unified message to district officials.
“The goal seemed so simple but rolling it out was complex,” said Mary Yordon (sixth from left, in photo, above), president of our Norwalk Federation of Teachers. “The plan was to get more than 1,000 ‘Union YES’ buttons distributed for every union member to wear at our district’s convocation. The purpose was to show school officials that our members had union leaders’ backs on demanding accountability,” she added.
Click here for a collage featuring members of all four unions participating in the demonstration.
Word spread of the coalition’s efforts during the final weeks of summer break to organize the unprecedented visibility action. The night before convocation, the HR director resigned – after less than two weeks in the role and just 28 days since making her initial anti-union remarks to the BOE.
Perhaps more importantly, the district superintendent also reached out to each labor leader with a personal apology. She additionally pledged a renewed “commitment to ensuring that every interaction with staff is grounded in respect and partnership” going forward.
The coalition’s successful efforts no doubt prevented a protracted period of labor-management strife and ensured a better way forward for the workforce and senior district officials. Together, members of all four unions showed that choosing “‘Union YES” also means choosing collaboration over confrontation.
Click here for reporting on the HR director’s resignation.
