Legal Question in Employment Law in Minnesota

Re: nonunion teachers' rights regarding a contract

Employees who are not unionized are generally at will employees, and can be terminated at any reason or for no reason at all, also their terms and conditions of employment can be changed at any time.

That said, an employer who bargains collectively and signs a contract with employees may in a sense create a union although one does not formally exist. Your question is really impossible to answer without reviewing the contract that has been signed or reviewed in the past. If one is in force you may be a sort of defacto union, but if you have not followed the appropriate procedures you are probably not protected by Minnesota's Public Employee Labor Relations Act (PELRA).

Re: nonunion teachers' rights regarding a contract

If this is a contract which each of you have signed and dated, the

school district is bound to follow the contract. If they don't, you

would have a potential cause of action for breach of contract.

If there is no contract between you and the school, but instead is

just a policy for following the union contract, then the

administration may change how your job is handled, what it pays,

how many hours you work, etc, just like any other "at will" employee.

Contact Sue Chambers in our office if you have any other questions.