LAS VEGAS – The Clark County Education Association has been shrinking and getting poorer in recent years, due largely to one group’s effort to remind teachers that they can leave the union.

Now the Las Vegas-based union, which has been a thorn in the side of school reform advocates for several years, may completely change identities, due to what appears to be a takeover attempt by the Teamsters Local 14.

If successful, the unusual takeover attempt would cost the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, its affiliate in Las Vegas, the third largest school district in the nation.

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The Teamsters have filed a legal public records request for the names and job classification of thousands of teachers and other employees currently represented by the Clark County Education Association, according to a story published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

While the Teamsters have not publicly acknowledged any intention to try to take over the teachers union, some observers believe that’s obviously what’s happening, for several different reasons.

For starters, the Teamsters tried to take over the Clark County teachers union as recently as 2007, and are currently trying to take over the district’s support staff union, which is also affiliated with the NEA.

The Teamsters won 71 percent of the vote in a recent election of school district support staff workers, the Review-Journal said. But it didn’t result in a change of union affiliations because less than half of the union members participated.

According to a ruling by the Nevada Supreme Court, a super-majority of all members would have had to agree to force a change in union representatives. That means the Teamsters would have needed the votes of at least half of all 11,263 members to take control of the support staff union, which represents bus drivers, custodians, cooks and other employees, the news report said.

But that rule was recently changed by the Nevada Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board, requiring only a majority of those members who choose to vote, the Review-Journal reported.

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That means the next election of Clark County support staff employees could end 40-plus years of union representation by the Education Support Employees Association.

Could the rule change also benefit a possible Teamsters effort to take over the Clark County teachers union?

Nobody knows for sure.

There’s a little doubt that many public education reformers would welcome the demise of the Clark County Education Association, one of the most radical, self-serving local teachers unions in the nation.

The union has hurt the school district and students in numerous ways, including its 2012 refusal to forgo scheduled pay raises for teachers, despite a financial emergency in the district, forcing the layoff of hundreds of lower-seniority teachers.

Meanwhile, there’s little question that the CCEA has been weakened in recent years, due to a significant loss of membership.

More than 1,800 union members have dropped out over the past three years, according to Victor Joecks, executive vice president of the Nevada Policy Research Institute. Those defections have cost the union about $3.2 million in dues revenue in that time, Joecks said.

Much of the lost membership is believed to be the result of a two-year (and ongoing) effort by NPRI to remind Clark County teachers know that they are only allowed to drop out of their union between July 1- 15 of each year.

Many teachers and other employees apparently didn’t know about that annual window of opportunity, and many have taken advantage, Joecks said.

The loss of membership and revenue has probably left the teachers union more vulnerable to a takeover attempt by the Teamsters, Joecks said.

“A lot of people just had no idea they could leave the union,” said Joecks, who added that the information campaign has been largely driven through emails to teachers, the use of billboards, and the word of mouth. “We’re still finding people that don’t know.

“I think this has made (the teachers union) more vulnerable. The unfortunate this is that I don’t see (a possible Teamsters) takeover as a possible improvement. “Our goal has always been to let (union members) know they can save $700 or $800 per year.”