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Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report.

Employees who work for the California Teachers Association claim union managers are trying to renege on an agreement in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus ruling, which ended the practice of unions charging agency fees to represent non-members.

With teachers now free to withhold payments, CTA expects a significant loss of membership and slashed its 2018-19 budget by more than $20 million. The union reached a memorandum of understanding with its almost 200 professional staffers prior to the Janus ruling to cut eight positions over a three-year period.

The employees claim CTA is violating the agreement by, among other things, denying all staff transfers into vacant positions, even those unaffected by the cuts. The staff union says CTA committed a breach of faith. Employees have filed five grievances over management actions since the Janus ruling.

The staff union instituted a campaign to address “patterns of poor management behavior” and adopted a resolution to “participate in an escalation of actions designed to confront the trend of disrespect.”

CTA is no stranger to internal labor problems. Last year, staffers held pickets and rallies at various union events to draw attention to their contract negotiations. CTA managers denounced the staff’s rhetoric and noted that the staff pension system had unfunded liabilities of $105 million. The two sides ultimately reached an agreement.