If these terms are not meet Teachers will go on strike or sick out!!!

[WigWag]

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905446306/new-york-city-educators-warn-school-reopening-plan-is-missing-pieces



The United Federation of Teachers, which represents most of New York City's educators, went one step further. The union set unilateral conditions for a safe reopening, including testing every teacher and every student within 10 days before school starts, and ensuring contact tracing is in place to notify every member of a school community within 24 hours of a case. If those conditions are not met, President Michael Mulgrew said, "The union is prepared to go to court and/or go on strike if we need to." A strike — or any kind of job action, including a sickout — by public employees would be in violation of New York state's Taylor Law, and could bring fines and even jail time for Mulgrew.

[WigWag16]

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905446306/new-york-city-educators-warn-school-reopening-plan-is-missing-pieces



The United Federation of Teachers, which represents most of New York City's educators, went one step further. The union set unilateral conditions for a safe reopening, including testing every teacher and every student within 10 days before school starts, and ensuring contact tracing is in place to notify every member of a school community within 24 hours of a case. If those conditions are not met, President Michael Mulgrew said, "The union is prepared to go to court and/or go on strike if we need to." A strike — or any kind of job action, including a sickout — by public employees would be in violation of New York state's Taylor Law, and could bring fines and even jail time for Mulgrew.

Good once they start losing money they will be begging to go back to work. Punish them and reward us for wanting to go back to work

[Hammer2161]

Do we truly wish bad things for the Teachers and Staff along with the Principals and Cooks and Janitorial staff for having unions that are strong enough to fight for them. I didn't think looking out for ones well being was a crime. They have justifiable concerns for their memberships and at the very core of it they are worried about their families and their very own health. Unfortunately the UFT lost almost 100 members due to covid 19 when this all started are they supposed to ignore that fact.

They are simply trying to protect their own just as we did when we went on strike and left all those children without transportation for what we believed were justifiable reasons. I try to read as much as I can and I would like to think I look at this from all views. With that being said I did read where the ATU and Michael Cordiello have lots of concerns and that we lost quite a few members to covid 19 when this all started. The concerns of our union and the ATU as a whole are also justifiable.

I read the stats and a very large portion of the members the ATU represents nationwide are over the age of 55. Making us as a whole very susceptible to this disease. Also if you have been paying attention children between the ages of 7 and 17 have seen a 90 percent spike in testing positive for the disease in the past month or so. Is that why NYC doesn't want to require the children to be tested out of fear for how many of them may be carriers which would be a huge concern for all of us involved.

I do believe a lot of this is being done to force the BOE to simply do the things they should have started doing back in March when this all started. Why did it take over 5 months to begin the process that we all knew was inevitable if we wanted our children back in school come September. The BOE and the Mayor chose not to pay out the bus contracts and still nothing was done. What have they done with all that money. Look around the country at areas that have tried to open up their schools it has been a complete disaster. Thousands of people have been forced to quarantine and schools have reversed their decisions and gone back to remote learning.

Simply put I think we all want to go back to work and we would all love some semblance of NORMALCY back in our everyday lives. But at what cost one life lost because of our failure to be prepared would be ONE LIFE TO MANY !!!!

[Buzz]

Very insightful post, Hammer2161 and your points are well taken. At the same time, I am sympathetic to those who are in such dire economic circumstances that they are willing to go back to work they  trivialize the possible risks ... especially since we have no way of really knowing if the perceived risks would even become a reality.

The one thing we do know for sure is, it's not going to be our decision. The teachers will win, they always do. Yet, I do not think it is the majority of them that don't want to go back to work, but rather the union imposing their political agenda on the entire membership.

[Hammer2161]

And again you and I seem to agree Buzz. As is the situation during most strikes or sick out's if you polled the masses instead of the powers that be I am sure most would say they would rather work. Listen we all know unions are not the end all of all but they do hopefully have our best interests at heart when they are making decisions on our behalf.

On a side note not sure everyone is paying attention but Catholic schools have already pushed back their temporary start dates by a week. My niece goes to Norte Dame and they got an email two days ago. Temporary new start date is  September 16th.

[OMG]

Agreed! The teachers are saying they do want to go back to work, they simply want to go back to work to a safe working environment. We all have stepped into the schools, and not every classroom has air-conditioning to circulate the air and filter the air, so I don't know what they're gonna do.The media is twisting the teachers statements and giving them a bad rap. If All I'm handed to go back into the bus is a pair of gloves and a mask and no other safety measures are put into place I for one will not feel comfortable, and definitely not safe. So we all know as of right now not one thing was done to our vehicles to make them safe to transport children, and we all know nothing was done to keep the drivers and escort safe. And it's August 26th. And if all they did was hand us a mask and gloves, I planned on wrapping my drivers compartment in plastic drop cloth material. Also before any kids got on the bus I was going to put it in park, shut off the engine and get out so they can get in because when they get up to the top step and make that turn to go down the aisle they are within 12 inches of me. I was going to do the same at the schools for drop off. And if one child took off his mask during my route I planned on pulling the bus over and calling dispatch on the phone, this is life and death and I don't wanna go on a respirator

[wheresmymoney!]

Yes absolutely the kids need to wear masks at all times. If they do and we do i think we should be ok. Everyone got sick before bcz noone knew how to prevent it.