UFT KNEW BUILDINGS WERE UNSAFE THE WEEK BEFORE THEY CLOSED

This is from Politico:

New York City's teachers union said Tuesday the city health department put educators and students at risk, prior to the city's system-wide shutdown, by not evenly applying a closure policy for individual schools when a staff member contracted the coronavirus.

The union issued the statement in response to the death of Dezann Romain, principal of Brooklyn Democracy Academy in Brownsville, who died this week from apparent complications stemming from the coronavirus. She was 36 years old. Another principal in the same building — Ronda Phillips, principal of Kappa V High School — has been hospitalized.

"Our heart goes out to the family, students and colleagues of Dezann Romain," the union said in a statement Tuesday night. "We will not comment on this particular tragedy at this time. However, in the week leading up to system-wide school closure, we had been given information that led us to believe that the New York City Department of Health was not following the school closing protocol issued by the state for COVID-19."

Further down:

Before Mayor Bill de Blasio closed schools, the state issued a directive to close any school where a staffer or student had tested positive for the virus for 24 hours, while the city conducted a deep clean and tracked anyone who may have come into contact with the infected person.

The union said it was told all final decisions for individual school closings — along with medical investigations and notification of affected members of the school community — rested with the city's Health Department. With its statement, the UFT suggested that did not happen with all schools in which someone had contracted the virus.

"For these reasons, the UFT was prepared to go to court to shut the schools, but stopped when city officials finally listened to reason and ordered the schools closed," the union said.

The Union knew buildings were unsafe but the best they could do was threaten a lawsuit. They told us to keep going into buildings where coronavirus was known to be present.

In fact, when members were calling out sick on Sunday, March 15 for Monday because they believed schools were unsafe, the UFT was discouraging them.

The Daily News published a message from UFT officials sent to District Representatives Saturday, March 14. This message was sent after the time the UFT now admits they knew buildings were unsafe. They sent it out because members said they were going to be absent en masse.

But UFT officials are privately warning members against that move, arguing it could be interpreted as a violation of state labor law, according to a message reviewed by the Daily News.

UFT officials told union representatives Saturday to "advise against" a planned call out on Monday.

“A coordinated sick-out will be interpreted by the DOE as an organized effort in violation of the Taylor Law and the Triborough Law,” union officials wrote its leaders.

“They will perceive it as a labor action and strike. Each participant is subject to a fine of two days’ pay for every missed day and arrest. However, even worse, the UFT will suffer greatly with fines and penalties. Please advise against.”

The UFT told the truth when they said that it was even worse that they would suffer greatly with fines and penalties. This blog noted that the Taylor Law prohibition against strikes was not going to be invoked in the middle of a pandemic.

The UFT declared that its dues are more important than member lives when they were willing to send dues-paying members into what literally were toxic buildings. Those buildings were just as unsafe last week when the Union didn't stop members from working in them on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

I won't forget, nor will my wife. Neither should you.

Please Mulgrew/Unity Caucus apologists, tell me how I am wrong. I would really like to be corrected.