From his minutes of President Mulgrew's report:
We believe 26 UFT members have died of COVID, but sadly that number will not stay the same.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the families who lost someone.
Of course, none of our representatives on the Board asked any of the very tough questions:
1-How many of those 26 worked in DOE schools? Retirees and hospital nurse deaths are a tragedy but there is nothing that the UFT could have done as far as I can tell to prevent any of these horrible deaths.
2-How many of those 26 worked in schools on March 17, 18 or 19 when the UFT refused to protect their members by telling them in no uncertain terms to stay out of schools that at this time were giant petri-dishes? UFTers were doing professional development that week that could have been done from home.
3- How many of those 26 worked the week of March 9 in schools where the UFT admitted they knew there were COVID-19 cases but didn't tell members to leave unsafe buildings?
To be fair, I'm not sure I could have asked these difficult questions tonight. That said, I doubt the UFT's Executive Board that has zero opposition will ever ask these or any tough questions and they need to be asked. That is why democracies need opposition. The UFT Executive Board will hold responsible who Mulgrew tells them to.
The UFT in my view is as responsible as Cuomo, de Blah Blah or the DOE for anyone who caught the virus in schools in March after the UFT was aware there was COVID-19 in schools and refused to tell members forcefully to stay out.
There is a gofundme for Kimarle Nguyen, one of our colleagues who has died. Condolences to the Nguyen family and her school community.
21 comments:
Just read that, so far, 29 members of my union the United Federation of Teachers have died of COVID-19, almost certainly more than would have had they sent us home sooner and closed schools that had outbreaks.
The number 29 reminds me of this lyric from a favorite haunting tune:
"The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald"
James, this era’s brand of teacher are very different than ours and those that preceded us. I’m starting to realize that even you will have little sway on getting them to give two craps that the City and UFT led to those twenty six deaths. Those who will drop out will do so to save money, not to affect change. There is no career; there is no fellowship. There needs to be massive lay offs, then they may start to learn.
If death doesn't move them, they need help.
Over the years I've been as critical as anyone of our Union leadership. Not that I am remotely close to in the league of James, Jeff Kaufman, Norm Scott, and others who have put their names and careers on the line. I just don't want to get a "Unity shill" reply.
I honestly don't think we can pin the passing of our colleagues on them, Cuomo, DeMoron, Trump, or even the Chinese Communist Party.
One month ago today the idea of shutting down society was not even on our radar screens. No one except for a radical fringe thought this was going to escalate the way it did. I even agreed with BDB for once on trying to keep Broadway open. I and all the faculty I talked to agreed that there was panic and hysteria and we shouldn't be manufacturing the next Great Depression.
This is a calamity that once a century or so arises naturally (unless one believes it's an intentionally released bioweapon). We human beings put a lot of faith in science and are reluctant to admit there are some natural processes that are more powerful than us.
Even that last week of work with kids, there was a hoax at a Bronx school where a parent called in and said a kid had it, they took her word for it and closed the school, and it turned out to be a hoax. With the testing issues there were very few (single digits) confirmed positive results anywhere; we only found out after the fact who was positive and where. What evidence did the UFT have to go to court with? It was all hearsay at that point.
Even in regard to the final week - yes it could've been done remotely. But what evidence is there that anyone who fell ill got the virus coming to work and not on the train, at the grocery store, at a museum, or wherever else?
I'm far more upset at the Leadership for not fighting tooth and nail against the 7 days of extra work because they fear bad PR for the Union (which in and of itself I think is incorrect, parents want a break too!)
Everyone should have been sent home to work once UFT knew there was COVID-19 cases in schools. I am no scientist but can pretty much trace outbreaks in certain schools to one person if suddenly a group of people in the same building all pretty much simultaneously come down sick.
Cuomo and deBlasio dithered and delayed. Inslee in Washington and Newsom in California acted swiftly and kept their number of COVID-19 cases down.
The UFT in the past would tell us to stay out of buildings they felt were unsafe (see asbestos shutdown 1993) but now they waffle and threaten meaningless lawsuits and leave us on our own.
Yes adding 7 days work for 4 CAR days is a terrible, but typical, UFT concession Putting member lives at risk by not telling them to stay out of let's just concede were potentially hazardous buildings in a pandemic when authorities were urging the masses to stay home is unconscionable.
I highly doubt anything will come of this, despite the horror. 99% will keep paying dues. We will still get abused. Business as usual will continue.
TJL, They announced the AP in my school was sick and tested positive March 17. People came in the next three days and we found out five are sick. How do you think they got sick?
Sadly, 2:52 is probably right but I am not taking it any longer.
I am 252. Already opted out. I'm guessing maybe 100 opt out. Maybe. That will cause no change.
DUES STRIKE NOW.
2:56 do you seriously think they got sick from touching doorknobs and elevator buttons that the AP might have touched days earlier? You say they announced it on Tuesday, the 1st day we went in without kids. Maybe they did get it in school the previous week or two when no one (including that AP) knew. They also could have gotten it on the train, supermarket, church, sporting event, restaurants, etc.
I can see the argument that when the Governor saw to it to shut down Broadway the same logic should've been applied to schools.
I don't see how the Union was responsible because they had nothing to work with except some hearsay and "self-reported" cases. Most of the people who claimed they were sick didn't even have the virus (look at the high rate of negative tests). Quite a few teachers at my school called out once the NBA cancelled that Wednesday night (the domino that started everything), none of them tested positive, and only they know whether they were really even sick. I'm not complaining as I got paid on 2 coverages.
I'm just trying to be objective here. I've considered opting out for other reasons. I may do it this June. So I'm not telling you not to. With that said I can't see given what we actually knew for sure then - not now, which is Monday morning quarterbacking - that anyone would've done anything differently. Especially after the hoax at the school in the Bronx. I remember having to reassure students that the so-called case in the Bronx wasn't even a case, it was just a hoax like so many hoaxes before (Zika, SARS, MERS, swine flu, bird flu, mad cow disease, Ebola, etc.). Who can blame anyone for not wanting to give into what seemed like more fear and paranoia when the media (in particular) cried "WOLF!!" so many times?
I am 2;56. It must have all been a coincidence that our building has so many people sick while others have zero. This virus spreads easily and we should have been told to go home. They slowed the spread right away when there was community spread in Washington and California when they shut things down. They closed the schools for all right away out west. We kept going to work infecting each other for nothing.
Brooklyn Tech, Alfred E Smith, Dodge were all Monday morning quarterbacking? TJL you are just wrong. UFT knew before schools were closed there was COVID-19 and did not pull staff out. How can you defend that?
TJL is just one of those dudes, or dudettes, that’d like to see as many teachers as possible dead from the virus. Hey TJL, just admit it - no one could think worse of you than they already do.
Read Mulgrew's own words from March 14:
"To the parents and guardians of our public school students:
Because of his irresponsible decision to keep the public schools open, Mayor Bill de Blasio can no longer assure the health and safety of our students and school communities.
The mayor is recklessly putting the health of our students, their families and school staff in jeopardy by refusing to close public schools. We have a small window of time to contain the coronavirus before it penetrates into our communities and overwhelms our health care system’s capacity to safely care for all the New Yorkers who may become gravely ill.
More than 21,000 U.S. schools, serving over 15 million students, across the country have closed to help check the spread of the virus. New York City museums have closed, Broadway has gone dark and major sports leagues have canceled or postponed their seasons, yet Mayor de Blasio refuses to close public schools."
Yeah but it was fine to send us in the infected schools the next week and into the subways. No apologizing for Mulgrew please. I hope the UFT is sued and has to pay out millions who they left exposed
This is from the Houston Methodist:
"Early data suggests the new coronavirus can live on surfaces for several days
The new coronavirus is, well, new — and there's still much to learn about how easily the virus can spread via contaminated surfaces. But early evidence indicates that the surface survivability of the new coronavirus is similar to that of SARS, a related coronavirus first identified in 2002. Depending on the surface, the new coronavirus can live on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days."
That is why buildings were closed by the Dept of Health. UFT knew they weren't following directives but let us go into buildings anyway. How can anyone excuse this or call it Monday morning quarterbacking? Read our March 17 post urging UFT members to stay home.
You folks are missing my point.
People didn't know THEN what we do NOW. For instance, there's today's story in the Post about a Pastor who, on our last day of work, put out a meme about "mass hysteria". Now he's dead. Obviously he wouldn't have sent it if he knew what would happen a month later.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/07/pastor-who-criticized-coronavirus-mass-hysteria-dies-from-illness/
The next to last day of school for students, a "campus" in the Bronx closed because a parent claimed her child was positive, when he wasn't.
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2020/03/13/two-bronx-schools-to-reopen-friday-after-coronavirus-scare
Then on Friday, a student at New Dorp HS on Staten Island was the first positive.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/13/coronavirus-in-ny-two-staten-island-schools-close-after-student-tests-positive/
That same day while we were working the Catholic schools (both the Brooklyn Diocese and the NY Archdiocese) announced schools would be closed the following Monday. Quite a few large cities (LA and Chicago) did the same. That day before we left Mulgrew put out his letter.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/13/coronavirus-in-ny-teachers-union-head-calls-for-closure-of-city-schools/ (Now if you want to say the "strongly worded letters" aren't good enough, I'm all ears to that.)
Even as far as James' post about the surfaces, we were told by everybody besides, let's say, Alex Jones that we were fine as long as we washed our hands. Not to mention no one was wearing masks then.
When we went in on Tuesday quite a few of us guys shook hands when we got to the school's library. One guy who presented a fist got ribbed for it. In retrospect he was right. (And he's gotten in his "I told you so".) Everybody though wasn't worried about meeting. We were at separate tables since the Principal asked us to do that and to a man (and woman) people were happy there were no kids, and we'd do what we have to do in our own rooms and that would be it. We hounded our CL, not about the virus or fear of the building, but whether our school would be a "first responder" school and if the City was going to pay per session. (There was a problem with that with Sandy, but eventually the per session was paid).
It was only later we heard stories like this one in the Post.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/28/pregnant-teacher-with-coronavirus-couldnt-convince-nyc-to-close-school/
But even in that case you go past the headline, she tested positive over the weekend. By that point the Union had already been fighting to close. The CL who ended up positive, he went to work too, all 3 days to boot. He obviously didn't think much of it either until after the fact, not to mention he and the others in the school likely contracted it a week or 2 before when the papers were still reporting on the Cats Roundtable guy spying on his daughter's date with Crowdstrike and Bill Clinton saying he was with Monica because he was anxious. It seems insane now (I forgot myself), but check the covers from the Post from March.
Even if you disagree 100%, consider this: Let's say Mulgrew would indeed willingly and knowingly risk (beyond the flu, which we were told this was at first) members' lives to save the dues checkoff. And, I surmise all that goes with it like the conferences and the lobster dinners in Albany. What sense would that make when, again assuming they knew people would die, that wrongful death lawsuits not to mention bad PR leading to opt outs would cost far more than the dues?
Now the test of time has proven me, most of my colleagues (a few didn't show, and the fist bump guy), Mulgrew (in terms of the PD days), the Mayor and Chancellor incorrect. James and the commenters on those posts were correct. However to say we want teachers to be dead is absurd, offensive and irresponsible.
6:07,
No one wants anyone to get sick.
I don't think TJL, or Mulgrew or anyone else wanted teachers dead.
TJL said,
"Even if you disagree 100%, consider this: Let's say Mulgrew would indeed willingly and knowingly risk (beyond the flu, which we were told this was at first) members' lives to save the dues checkoff. And, I surmise all that goes with it like the conferences and the lobster dinners in Albany. What sense would that make when, again assuming they knew people would die, that wrongful death lawsuits not to mention bad PR leading to opt outs would cost far more than the dues?"
Look at what happened TJL. Mulgrew knowingly put members at risk to save the dues checkoff. It's documented. By March 11, he knew how bad this was as Italy was in the midst of the pandemic that WHO declared on that day and there was community spread already in NYC. We know now UFT knew that week there were cases in schools but schools weren't closed nor did the UFT ever tell its members to get the hell out and go home which was the advice of every expert at that point. The same goes for March 17, 18 and 19. UFT knew buildings were infected and they left members to decide for themselves whether to work in them or go home.
If the lawsuits start flying, the UFT will have to answer for this. I hope the lawyers use the information on this blog to get money for teachers who ended up with COVID-19. On the other hand, I don't underestimate the UFT's ability to defend the institution of the union as opposed to its members.
I agree with you that I don't think Mulgrew's intention ever was to make people sick. In the end, however, I am not sure that matters as Mulgrew did put UFT dues over member health. Oh the irony if that is what finally brings their machine down.
James, I'm all ears, if you can find proof of what you said on the 11th. You convinced me to stay in when I was going to opt out.
You're right about Italy but so many of us at the time (including the Governor and Mayor) said we're not China, we're not Iran, we're not Italy. "It can't happen here".
The first student positive was Friday the 13th which ended up being students' last day. The earliest teacher positive I found was the pregnant teacher I linked earlier from the Post. It's true at that point the DOE knows, the Union should know and I concede this point about the PD days. I'm not sure that would've saved anyone at that point as the genie was out of the bottle. And I wonder why the CL didn't get his teachers out at his school like you did at Jamaica with the toilets.
I took a pic on my phone on Thursday the 12th that I still have. It's the first day I got a seat on the PATH train. When we were moving our cards other teachers said the same thing about easier commutes than usual and that's when several of us (who are in bed early and rise early) learned from a colleague that the night before the NBA suspended its season. Everyone was shocked. As far as I can tell that's the first day that a significant amount of people thought that perhaps there was actually something to this. However most of us (teachers and students) thought the NBA was just covering its behind over liability. There were a few more coverages that day but a few of us denizens of the faculty room knew guys had tickets to the A10 tournament at Barclays Center.
My point being if commenters want to call me foolhardy (or worse) that's fine but I'm not sure most teachers or the public would've bought in that early. Things changed immensely from day to day even. The hospital union came out against us on Friday and stayed that way through Sunday. Teachers were at happy hour Friday and everyplace was packed. (Even the train Friday was SRO again, although kids' attendance was lower). Commenters say the Union prioritized dues over members, but even Tuesday at least at my school the consensus was the UFT cost us per session so it could save itself a lawsuit. There was interest in working the following week in school until the CL didn't get back to us about getting per session. Of course, my school isn't necessarily representative of the system, but neither are commeneters on this blog (otherwise the Unity beast would've been slayed long ago.)
There's an interesting, critical article in the Times, though unsurprisingly there's Fake News in it
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/nyregion/new-york-coronavirus-response-delays.html
Of most interest to us, it mentions San Francisco closing schools - but the devil is in the details. SF announced it was closing that Thursday, but the closure was effective Monday, the same as us. SF teachers didn't go in, but principals did (according to UESF). Gov. DeWine in Ohio also announced a closure Thursday but the kids went to school all the way through Monday and teachers still could be told to report (https://governor.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/governor/media/news-and-media/announces-school-closures)
Later the article mentioned LA closed its schools on the 13th which is also a lie. They announced that day, but the closure started the 16th, like us. One big difference there is that teachers were also home as of Monday the 16th. The UTLA I think you'd agree is a much more effective union than ours.
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