Yesterday the American Federation of Teachers and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers filed a complaint with the Louisiana Workforce Commission (the state's department of labor) and the LA Attorney General regarding the unlawful treatment of Filipino teachers by an unscrupulous recruiter.
I'm the AFT attorney who filed the complaint, which you can find here:
Press Release and Complaint
Below the fold is an article appearing in the Shreveport Times, consisting almost entirely of statements I gave the reporter. Here's the link: Shreveport Times
AFT's report on the growing trend of importing educators can be found here:
Importing Educators
Teacher complaints to East Baton Rouge LFT chapter triggered inquiries
By Icess Fernandez
ifernandez@gannett.com
Filipino teachers' complaints to the East Baton Rouge chapter of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers in 2008 prompted the organization to take a closer look at the relationship between a recruiting company and the school system.
"We then filed a FOIA request and saw conversations between the recruitment company and the school systems," said Dan McNeil, associate director of the American Federation of Teachers legal department.
A FOIA request is a request for information and records under Freedom of Information Act.
Among the documents received were emails between school districts and the recruiting company, proposals with the district, and a contract with the Louisiana Department of Education for teachers for the Recovery School District.
There are not contracts between individual school districts and Universal Placement International because the company offered to find teachers at no cost to the school systems, McNeil said.
Statewide, there are more than 200 Filipino teachers and Louisiana is the only state with the union has filed a complaint, McNeil said. He added that he only knew of recruiting company operating in one other state, California.
McNeil said Louisiana state law should help with getting what the union seeks.
"There is a statute in Louisiana, if enforced, that will get the remedies we need," he said. "We do intend on going to the U.S. Department of Labor."
McNeil echoed local union president Jackie Landsdale’s comments about the teacher’s initial fear of speaking up.
"They were told that if they talked to anyone, they were threatened with deportation or loss of jobs," he said. "Now we have learned that she’s (Navarro) following up on renewal. When they’re up for a visa renewal, she doesn’t fill out the paperwork, the Visa is denied, and then she calls (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on them."
The next step for the union is to wait and see, he said.
"We will continue to monitor and see if they enforce Louisiana law," he said.