United Teachers of New Orleans is a teacher union for employees of the New Orleans public school system. ¹ United Teachers of New Orleans represents teachers, paraprofessionals, and other public school employees. The union has advocated for decoupling of teacher performance evaluations from statewide student assessments and expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Finances

United Teachers of New Orleans receives contributions through union dues. In 2018 it received $145,757 from contributions, $180,689 from program service revenue, and revenue from other sources. ²

In 2020, United Teachers of New Orleans spent $8,800 on staff pensions, $1,829 on staff IRAs, and $14,780 on staff health insurance, life insurance, and liability insurance. ³

Lobbying

United Teachers of New Orleans lobbied to pass Senate Bill 31, a statute that would prevent results from statewide student assessments in 2020 and 2021 from being used to evaluate the performance of teachers. ⁴

Local Politics

The United Teachers of New Orleans is active in local New Orleans politics, and has endorsed candidates for public office. The organization provided a complete list of candidates it endorsed in the 2020 school board elections for the Orleans Parish School Board, the third largest school board in the state of Louisiana. ⁵

Charter School Unions

In 2018, in response to litigation initiated by the United Teachers of New Orleans, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Louisiana charter schools are subject to federal union laws. ⁶

Public schools under Louisiana law require school board consent to unionization and like all state and municipal government entities are not subject to the federal National Labor Relations Act. The Fifth Circuit sided with United Teachers of New Orleans and ruled that Louisiana charter schools are neither political subdivisions of the state nor responsive to political subdivisions, and are therefore private employers subject to the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. ⁶

Black Lives Matter

The United Teachers of New Orleans has referred to the school system as a microcosm of broader society, and hence an organization subject to racism, inequality, and oppression. ⁷  The organization went on to voice support for the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in 2020 and characterized police criticism of the movement as a “violent response” to the protests. ⁷

Leadership

Jim Randels is the president of United Teachers of New Orleans. ⁶ Randels has been a member of United Teachers of New Orleans since he began teaching in January 1984. Randels joined UTNO’s Executive Council in 1999, where he served as the United Teachers of New Orleans representative to the steering committee of Community Labor United. ⁸

1. “Who We Are. Kino Border Initiative” Kino Border Initiative. www.kinoborderinitiative.org/who-we-are/
2. “Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax” Guidestar.org. Accessed December 29, 2020. Lines 8-12.
3. “Teachers ALF-CIO Local 527 -Schedule 20” Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards.
4. “Ask the Senate Education Committee to Support SB 31” United Teachers of New Orleans. http://utno.la.aft.org/legislation/ask-senate-education-committee-support-sb-31
5. “UTNO Endorses Highly Qualified Candidates for Orleans Parish School Board” United Teachers of New Orleans. http://utno.la.aft.org/committee-policial-education-cope/utno-endorses-highly-qualified-candidates-orleans-parish-school
6. “Appeals Court okays union recognition in charter schools” United Teachers of New Orleans. http://utno.la.aft.org/press/appeals-court-okays-union-recognition-charter-schools
7. “UTNO Statement of Solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter” United Teachers of New Orleans. http://utno.la.aft.org/news/utno-statement-solidarity-blacklivesmatter-0
8. “Jim Randels” The Gillespie-Senter Memorial Community Breakfast. http://www.thecommunitybreakfast.org/2018/11/