UFT members at a Queens school won a hard-fought arbitration decision against a principal engaging in union animus, confirming members’ rights to conduct union activity without interference or retaliation.
The arbitrator’s finding marks a significant union victory gained after members spent four years organizing and building their case against the PS 35 principal with the help of the UFT Grievance Department and the union’s Queens borough office.
The trouble began in 2022, after Chapter Leader Jonathan Licata, a longtime kindergarten teacher at the Hollis, Queens, school, questioned some of the principal’s spending. His queries set off a series of adverse actions, Licata said at April’s Delegate Assembly days after the arbitrator’s ruling. The principal sent him a 48-hour disciplinary notice, lowered his Advance ratings, held disciplinary meetings for consultation committee members and took other punitive actions.
Licata filed a grievance for union animus in spring 2022 and later a grievance for harassment and retaliation. And despite the prospect of retaliation for themselves, 24 UFT members at the school signed onto the grievances, which were combined.
PS 35 members remained steadfast in the fight before the case went to arbitration about a year ago and was finally resolved in the UFT’s favor.
“Their case was built on her lies,” said Licata. “Our case was built on facts, things that actually happened.”
The principal has been under investigation by the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools for some of her spending, including using school funds to buy friends’ books for PS 35 and hire friends as consultants. In a separate case, the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation found in 2022 that she had overpaid a teacher by about $10,000 for per-session work.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew thanked PS 35 members for standing strong: “If we don’t want to fight, we can’t win. These are difficult situations, but the only way through it is to fight.”
Licata hopes PS 35’s experience can inspire members who are working in difficult conditions. “If it’s happening in your school, and if you stick together, you can make a big change in your school,” he said.
Michael Herron, a special representative in the Grievance Department, said the arbitrator “called out the rights that we all know that we have, but that sometimes principals forget about.” Chapter leaders have the right to form a consultation committee, hold union meetings and perform other union activities without being retaliated against, he said.
The arbitrator also found there doesn’t need to be an adverse impact, such as a bad rating, to grieve union animus. Even a principal’s regular managerial decisions can fall into that category if they are done to punish or interfere with the union, Herron said.
In arguing the case, the UFT relied on a 1968 decision, he said, “which means there will be people saying ‘Jon Licata’ and ‘Q35’ for 80 years because they stood up and they fought back.”