Labor unions are growing increasingly concerned about GOP efforts to implement a coronavirus liability shield for businesses after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she has no red lines on the next COVID-19 relief bill.
Pelosi indicated this week she is open to negotiations with Senate Republicans on the House-passed $3 trillion aid package, which doesn’t include any provisions or restrictions on potential liability protections.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has insisted that any coronavirus relief legislation that contains aid for state governments must be accompanied by a liability shield for employers, a stance backed by both the White House and pro-business lobbying groups.
Labor unions, however, have stressed there is no room for negotiation.
“After experiencing eight workers die and more than 300 test positive for COVID at JBS Greeley in Colorado, it’s clear companies are responsible to provide a safe, healthy work environment for its employees. If they fail to do so, laws must hold them accountable for those failures,” said Kim Cordova, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, which represents 22,000 workers, including those at the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo.
“Any attempt to shield companies from liability is a potential death sentence for front-line essential workers — putting all Americans at risk in the long term,” she added.
Has anyone been able to ask UFT President Michael Mulgrew or AFT President Randi Weingarten about our position on this issue?
How about you? Would you take federal stimulus funds if they are tied to a liability shield preventing lawsuits against employers including the NYC DOE?
61 comments:
No, I would not take the money if we have to agree to a no liability clause. No union should agree to this. I know that Mulgrew was trying to sell it by telling his usual half story half truths method but we cannot except this. Mulgrew kept mentioning protecting ourselves as well as our livelihood and we need the federal money to protect our livelihood. Mulgrew is trying to sell this to us by playing on union members desperation to keep their paychecks. He is making it seem like we have no choice if we want to protect our livelihood.
THIS IS DISGUSTING AND WRONG!! WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS!
If cuts to education in NYC are necessary so be it. Mulgrew needs to either act like a leader he is paid to be or LEAVE. MULGREW NEEDS TO STAND HIS GROUND AND SAY WE ARE NOT GOING INTO UNSAFE BUILDINGS, WE ARE NOT AGREEING TO GIVE UP THE RIGHT TO SUE, NO WAY!!
MULGREW NEEDS TO MAKE IT CLEAR NOW TO THE CITY, STATE ETC THAT WE ARE NOT GIVING UP THESE RIGHTS TO KEEP OUR PAYCHECKS. THIS IS BULLSH**! If large cuts to education need to happen TELL THE CHANCELLOR, DOE MAYOR, ETC THAT THEY NEED TO CUT ALL THESE USELESS DOE MANAGERS WHO MANAGE OTHER MANAGERS.
WE SHOULD NOT TAKE FEDERAL MONEY WITH STRINGS ATTACHED. USE THE MONEY THE STATE/CITY HAS AND CUT THE FAT FROM THE PEOPLE AT TWEED.
MULGREW NEEDS TO LEAD AND FIGHT AND DO WHAT IS NECESSARY TO PROTECT US. DON'T LET HIM PREY ON YOUR CONCERN FOR A PAYCHECK. TELL MULGREW TO DO HIS JOB or STEP DOWN!!!!!
Maybe too many big words there for some of your posters, James. But yes, a big problem for school-based staff if there is blanket liability shielding for City agencies, especially the DOE and MTA. You get sick, it is the risk you took as an individual.
I hope and think there will be a compromise. Tort reform was in order anyway. A limit on liability combined with a condition that employers must follow existing federal guidance or be subject to lawsuits should be doable.
The Establishment D's (DINOs)and R's (RINOs) rely on corporate donors. Workers can't afford to be locked out of work any longer. "Blue" states (mostly) find themselves in a major budget hole. R hopes to maintain the White House rest on winning states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota that find themselves in this situation.
This would cover business, government, and workers as this would give some teeth to the "recommendations" and "guidelines". I don't care about useless "deep cleanings" but sick people (and those exposed) need to stay home for 2 weeks. This costs money.
Home Depot, Lowe's BJ's and other stores waived absentee policies; I don't think anyone is under the illusion they did this out of the kindness of their hearts, they did it because it's a smart business decision. Other businesses like the NBA got the whole shutdown ball rolling because they feared liability. If a business stands to lose more from lawsuits it's going to continue to lock workers out and lobby the government to continue draconian shutdowns so it can proceed to procure a handout from the government which it mostly keeps while the government ends up on the hook for the workers' salaries through enhanced unemployment benefits.
I don't like government bailouts but if the government is the one forcing you out of business, destroying your tax base and robbing you of your paycheck, it ought to pony up and then get out of the way.
Call it cherry picking but I was multitasking, also on the BJ's site before heading out today. Mind you, the following was done for their workers without a Union and without dues. Out Leadership ought to be able to do better:
How are you protecting your team members?
Our team members have been working hard to serve our community and be there for you and your families and we’re doing everything we can to help support them.
We have provided new health protocols and information to help keep our team members safe.
We have waived our absenteeism policy so team members can stay home if they need to.
If team members are under mandated quarantine, they will receive their standard pay for up to 14 days.
If a team member test positive for coronavirus, they are able to use accrued sick time and will receive their standard pay for any additional time needed for up to 14 days.
The Aisle Help fund is available to team members facing financial hardship.
We are checking the temperatures of team members as they report to work in all locations. All team members will enter through the designated employee entrance, regardless of start time. If any team member registers an elevated temperature, s/he is not able to enter and will be directed to return home and seek medical care if necessary. We continue to ask any team member who feels ill to stay home.
We are providing masks and gloves to team members, who are required to wear them unless they have a medical condition preventing them from doing so. We are providing high-quality masks, but are not providing N95 respirators, which should be reserved for healthcare workers.
We are providing safety glasses to Team Members who would like to wear them.
Mobile and fixed sneeze-guard barriers will be placed at our membership desk, in our checkout lanes and exits.
James, look at this. Not trying to make this another opt in vs opt out argument, but this is a brand new thread, the very first response is..."I know that Mulgrew was trying to sell it by telling his usual half story half truths method but we cannot except this. Mulgrew kept mentioning protecting ourselves as well as our livelihood and we need the federal money to protect our livelihood. Mulgrew is trying to sell this to us by playing on union members desperation to keep their paychecks. He is making it seem like we have no choice if we want to protect our livelihood.
THIS IS DISGUSTING AND WRONG!! WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS! Mulgrew needs to either act like a leader he is paid to be or LEAVE. DON'T LET HIM PREY ON YOUR CONCERN FOR A PAYCHECK. TELL MULGREW TO DO HIS JOB or STEP DOWN!!!!!"
When mulgrew gets 90% of the vote again next election?
Several schools closed down in Seoul, South Korea after a kindergarten student contracted the coronavirus from his art teacher.
As the news spread of the six-year-old boy’s illness, fear quickly emerged among parents with young children, just two days ahead of the planned second-phase resumption of schools, including kindergartens, reported the South Korean Yonhap News Agency.
I always see people on here mentioning we should cut the fat from people at tweed and all the useless upper management types. But do y’all really think that will happen? I say no chance they would cut programs for kids and even teachers before those guys get touched
To anonymous 10:40am To be clear
I am not trying to encourage members to opt in/opt out.
I was answering the question James had posed as well as trying to encourage members to not fall for the Mulgrew B.S and DEMAND PROTECTION FROM THE UNION! We have the power to SPEAK UP and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WE ARE NOT GIVING UP OUR FUTURE RIGHTS TO PAYMENT IF WE GET SICK OR DIE.
I would like members to realize we pay the union and together WE CAN CREATE CHANGE! If the members make it clear we want protection the union may realize that they have to come up with another solution. We need to make them work for us.
Trim the fat? They just added $421 to every ebt card in nyc for every student.
The $421 is federal money to reimburse parents who have paid to feed their kids lunch since the middle of March.
Are teachers that died from Corona virus front line workers who deserve additional death benefits
Do teachers get hazard pay for showing up in March?
Do teachers even get paid for working during Spring Break?
These are just some questions that Mulgrew needs to answer before June 1st.
Teachers who opt out are doing so because Mulgrew has crossed red lines on safety and health,
not because of greed and selfishness.
Do we need a union 1:58? What are you doing to build one by taking your dues back? Answer: nothing.
$421 plus the unlimited meals schools are still providing?
When will mulgrew be answering those questions? He wont. And you will all forget, as usual.
What are you doing to improve a clearly awful situation by continuing to pay and not demanding changes?
It is the job of the leadership to be leadership. When they have 100% dues, they have more than enough financial strength to do the job. They have failed. I can only take so much.
Calendar?
Spring break pay?
March 17-19?
Many school buildings are closed. Many fewer meals are being prepared in schools.Parents have been feeding their kids at home. Giving them $420 is no big deal.
What are you doing 2:51?
They will do just as lousy a job without your dues and your CL can ignore you.
I have a proposal to make. Can we agree that teachers who opt out can no longer participate in this pro union blog?
313,
We aren’t getting anything for spring break or March 17th-19th. The doe will say we received 4 car days and the UFT will do what it does best and give us non-answers until the topic goes away.
As far as a calendar, you’re right. It’s Memorial Day. We need at least a tentative calendar for the fall. That is a joke!
But mulgrew said he was negotiating a package.
Most CLs suck, with me paying dues or not. So you say I dont pay and I'm not improving things while you pay, approve of their job, and demand no change. Which is worse?
I'm confused, if everybody keeps saying they suck while we pay, why pay? They clearly wont change with 100% dues.
You still haven't figured out that the members, not the leaders, are the union.
The UFT leadership has crossed my red lines.
If you are continuing to pay dues, do you even have any red lines?
and don't blame the Koch brothers; blame Mulgrew!
4pm, if that is your answer, then the 100k plus members suck, because every contract is worse, gets voted in by huge majority, and change is never made, and there is no hope for change going forward. Then, every election, unity wins by landslide numbers. And most members have no idea about the contract, or what they are even voting for...
So then go comment on an anti-union blog. You can be with like minded assholes and the rest of us can try to fix the UFT.
Some of you guys need to enjoy the sunshine, go for a walk, crack a few beers open and enjoy life.
The doe isn’t worth the high blood pressure and stress.
Really 421? Lease let us know how and what fix so we can all assist...
Who is anti union? The uft just has been an embarrassment.
How long will this fix take? It's been 20 years of awful. Another 5? 10? 20?
Typical unity hack. Uft has been a disaster for decades, you voice displeasure so you are are anti union...the other option is to continue paying for nothing.
At this point, I can't blame anyone for not paying dues. Mulgrew is a disgrace, as is the rest of the incompetent UFT, and the chances of enough teachers waking up to change this is almost zero. It would take 20,000 layoffs to get people to wake up, and don't put it by the UFT to stand by and watch this happen with their usual fake outrage.
I would love to say we have a strong union, we dont.
If each one of you could convince 5 teachers to sign for that new union, that would be a start. Assuming it's ten of you commenting, that's 50 right there. Start small and build up.
Better than reading your whiny, stupid comments here all day and all night.
1. We want and need Federal money.
2. We need to avoid the cut and slash his or her job or benefit or program and save mine dialogue.
3. Such dialogue plays into the hands of the demagogues in Washington and in Albany. The Fat, the Yoga, the super-supers, the food for the poor, the Ipads, the waste of resources, these are distractions that will divide educators from educators, and educators from families and students.
4. We need to stick together, educators, families and students and not accept business as usual.
5. In the broader movement we need to support workers, so no, absolutely no, we can't allow Washington to make the funding to states another business package that introduces a liability shield for businesses or for schools or transportation systems, public, tax supported services. It is a sign of how low unions have sunk that anyone who is a member of a union would even ask this question.
6. Laws and regulations that protect workers protect our food, our roads and highways, the homes we live in, the transportation systems we depend on. Is is a good idea to continue to let Boeing regulate itself as the FAA rubber stamps its aircraft safety reviews? How many more planes need to crash before this ends? Is it OK that OSHA is now a tool of business? Your meat and the food supply is only as safe as the workers who cut it pack it, process it and ship it. Meat packing is at the front of this liability shield debate in Washington. Dangerous work when Covit-19 is not infecting workers. When Upton Sinclair wrote _The Jungle_ his objective was to protect workers. The public was more horrified by the conditions of their meat than the work conditions of the workers, but this led to legislation that protects us, teachers. We need to stand with the meat packers and bus drivers and the cops and fire fighters and all the workers who will lost protections that were hard won.
6. We can get the money without giving in on the liability shield, but we need to stick together and stay focused and we need to know who the fuck we are. We are the workers. So much that I read here reads like apology for business exploitation of workers and angry screed against poor families and kids. Stop that. You will feel a lot better when you look in the mirror and see who you are: you are a working class citizen. Be proud of that.
@4 pm They've figured it out. It's their fear that has immobilized them. Fear is a bi=/ch if you let it rule you.
@4:24 pm lol
So after mulgrew told us he would negotiate further compensation for spring break, and if he doesnt, is that a red line? I guess I'm asking, when will enough be enough? Remember the contracts he has negotiated with billions and billions in surplus as he makes excuses about the next one. I'm not arguing opt out or not, just asking for thoughts...
The Spring Break is also tied to DC 37 and CSA. I think all 3 need to get about the same thing.
NO! Mr. Mulgrew. We will not water down our contractual right to a safe workplace! Enough is enough and we all know what happens next! Someone gets sick or loses their life then DOE claims it is their fault thus relieving themselves of any responsibility by responding, "Well, you did not have to.... or... Why did you....?" The old bait and switch tactics blaming the worker!
1. Liability? Neither the leadership at the DOE or the UFT cares about anyone but themselves. If they do not care if children are educated or that teachers are supported, heard, and defended, why would they care about liability? They never cared about the teachers being threatened by students or administration. No, I won't believe anything that comes about from the DOE or the UFT about liability. Something may come out on paper but that will be about as worthless as the DOE discipline code.
2. I don't want a federal bailout. The more money the NYC DOE has, the more it wastes. The NYC DOE needs to get it's focus back to teaching and learning. If the federal government gave the NYC DOE 100 billion, the schools would not get any better and there would be more suits working at and from Tweed. Corrupt and immoral people will not become virtuous and moral by giving them more money. Until, NYC DOE can demonstrate that they can wisely spend what they already have, why would anyone think it makes sense to give the DOE more money to waste? If you are honest, you know any kind of bailout money would never get to the classrooms.
3. Anyone who believes that the NYC DOE doesn't have plenty of fat to cut must be in Deblasio's or Carranza's inner circle.
4. Teachers, families and students should stick together. I am afraid that boat sailed a while ago. Keep in mind that many of the teachers now are products of the Bloomberg years.
5.The NYC DOE runs like a business and they too, police themselves. The taxpayers don't seem to have a problem with it or else they would call for some accountability from the suits.
6. I really don't want any more money to go to the NYC DOE. They have one-third of the NYC budget! What they are doing is not right, moral, justifiable, or productive. The increasing budget of the NYC DOE is not sustainable. Using other people's money is easy, but what will you do when it runs out? How about cleaning house instead of renting a storage unit?
7. Everyone knows that when you invest in failure, that is exactly what you are going to get; more failure.
Still whining and complaining about UFT inaction,but I didn't see one comment about joining UFT's Commitee to get Heroes Act by texting "Lifeline to 30644" and participating in the fight.
We are the UFT and if we don't join the fight who is going to get the resources we need at this crucial time.
Michael Mulgrew demanding action, which he is doing, does not nearly carry the weight of 150,000 letters and contacts to our Congress people.
Use some of the time you are spending at home to get involved in solving the problem instead of whining and complaining.
DO SOMETHING
Anonymous
People have to pay to feed their kids?
I don't know who is more disgusting, the assholes who keep bragging how they opted out of the union or the Unity ass kisser who keeps telling us to join the UFT action to get us money wbile not telling us the price for that money may be the DOE will be shielded from liability lawsuits if we die.
I agree with the comment that the more money the doe gets, the more it's wasted. I remember when my school started the WITSI iniative. (Writing is Thinking Through Strategic Inquiry). They hired consultants to show us how to write expanded sentences. Then we had to analyze their work in groups to discover kids didn't know where to put a comma correctly. The whole thing went bust after two years and was never heard again. Why couldn't they just use the money for small class sizes which has been proven again and again to be affective at increasing class size. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best.
So after mulgrew told us he would negotiate further compensation for spring break, and if he doesnt, is that a red line? I guess I'm asking, when will enough be enough? Remember the contracts he has negotiated with billions and billions in surplus as he makes excuses about the next one. I'm not arguing opt out or not, just asking for thoughts...
If mulgrew found out on 7/1/20, that 80% opted out what do you think would happen vs if nobody opted out?
80% ain't opting out. Maybe 80 teachers
A few days pay in this climate doesn't mean shit.
Maybe staff wouldn't show hostility against students of those students were a drop more respectful.
Maybe they would be more respectful if you gave some respect.
Respect isn't earned, it's given freely. You are supposed to respect people even if you don't like them.
Exactly 4:06.
I guess every teacher is disrespectful then, in every single failing school...Your excuse really works well.
@8:09am: Exactly!!!!
The clowns love throwing money out of the window. Dumbazzes. Instead of allowing educators who hold a master's degree in education lead the way, they spend money on so-called experts. WTH.
@4:18pm: i don't know if they are or are not respectful. I do know that passing failing students is disrespectful. You're disrespecting yourself, your profession, your students and your country.
Exactly, would you go to a doctor who got his/her credentials by cheating and his/her professors ignoring it.
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