Tuesday, September 15, 2020

NEW PLAINTIFFS CAN STILL JOIN THE SOLIDARITY LAWSUIT SEEKING MORE ACCOMMODATIONS FOR EDUCATORS TO WORK REMOTELY

 We reported last evening on plaintiffs in a lawsuit led by UFT Solidarity being granted a Temporary Restraining Order to be permitted to work remotely from home.

The Temporary Restraining Order:

ORDERED that Petitioners’ motion for a temporary restraining order is GRANTED

solely to the extent that Respondents may not compel Petitioners to report to work in person, may not deny them the ability to work remotely, and may not deny or deduct salary and/or leave time for remote work until further order of the Court; and it is further

ORDERED that this TRO applies only to the named Petitioners; and it is further

ORDERED that counsel for the parties shall forthwith confer regarding their immediate availability for an expedited remote hearing on the preliminary injunction and call the Court at 10 a.m. on September 15, 2020 to discuss the logistics of the hearing.

The parties met earlier today. It was agreed that new petitioners can join the case. You have until Thursday night to complete an affidavit stating why you are uncomfortable returning to school buildings and how you should be able to work remotely. Then, pay a $250 fee. The case will be heard on Friday in Manhattan.

From attorney Bryan Glass: 

I really think this case has the potential to expose a rift between City, UFT, and individual teachers as I begin to think through the consequences of this...I  am suggesting any NYC educator who wants to join at this point prepare an affidavit explaining why they are not comfortable  returning and seek to intervene as part of our reply papers.  This will be a true social experiment about the effect of the coronavirus on individual decision-making if nothing else...

Email Lydia Howrilka at lydia.howrilka@live.com to get involved. You can also email us at iceuft@gmail.com if you want to get involved but do not procrastinate. This has to be done by Thursday.

Update:

Coverage of the case is on News 12 Brooklyn.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really think it is totally awesome of Lydia and the Solidarity team. How sad is it that they had to go outside of the Unity to get this done. Words can not even express that they had to use a "go fund me". I'll ask again, "Where is our union?" ...... Nothing but crickets.

Please don't tell me to vote in the next election. I have been a UFT member for over thirty years. I never met a member that said they voted for the Union President. It is shocking and sad. Now it has come to teachers and their families lives.

Lydia you rock. Keep on fighting the good fight!

Anonymous said...

Still awaiting covid test result from Sunday.

Anonymous said...

The UFT is a joke union.

Anonymous said...

The DOE promised this live remote instruction to parents -- despite warnings from principals it would be impossible to staff. Parents made decisions to pick blended based on that. Then the day before things started the DOE took back the promise. How is that transparent, exactly?

"Nobody's hiding anything here," @DOEChancellor says of changes to remote instruction, which came out late last night, hours before first remote day of education.

“What we’ve chosen to do is be honest and transparent”

Anonymous said...

The phrase "bait and switch" comes to mind. It's not as if DOE brain trust didn't know there was no good solution to the staffing issue for weeks now. But de Blasio went ahead with the TV ads and the pressers hailing blended anyway.

Sigh.