Wednesday, April 07, 2021

MULGREW ON FOX 5: GET RID OF THE RULE COMPLETELY THAT SAYS TWO UNLINKED COVID CASES CLOSES A SCHOOL BUILDING

Michael Mulgrew in an interview on Fox 5 this morning said the UFT thinks that with the increased contact tracing and testing, we should be able to monitor in-school spread of COVID.

Mulgrew stated that we can get rid of the rule completely that mandates that if there are two unrelated cases in a school, the building closes. He claimed the city just needs a plan and they had a very good conversation yesterday.

For those who don't want sit through the interview Leonie Haimson gives a succinct summary on Twitter:


This looks like an almost complete about-face from Mulgrew compared to what he put out in a statement on Monday.


That must have been one really productive meeting Mulgrew and the mayor had yesterday.

We have a comment from a teacher on Twitter on what it's like in an actual classroom. Even Mulgrew admits to increasing COVID spread among children.

My students are at the point where they take their masks off and turn them into slingshots and roll their eyes when I tell them that a mask over their mouth and nose is not negotiable.


56 comments:

Anonymous said...

James, you have no comment? This is ok? After all the ranting you do about variants? Can I say it? Dues for this?

Anonymous said...

Is anybody listening to this uft town hall? NYCDOE is the best school system with the best students. LOLLOLLOL. Have they read this blog? The teacher facebook page? Seen the students results? Seen the retention rate?

Anonymous said...

The city and mayor must have offered more pay off money to Mulgrew. Probably going to filter it through his sister's business. May they all rott in hell.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure James will loudly condemn...no he won't, he will encourage the sheep to pay for their own demise.

Anonymous said...

This is what I am paying dues for? Why am paying for Mulgrew to be a yes man for the Mayor?
Mulgrew is a stooge for the party bosses of the NY city and state democratic party.
Mulgrew is absolutely not an advocate for my safety, my financial future or for my workplace dignity.

Anonymous said...

The city has Mulgrew hanging by the balls. They must have some dirt on him from his time as a teacher.

Anonymous said...

The truth is that our working conditions are not safe and the UFT has colluded in the NYC cover up. The DOE and UFT will continue to whitewash the facts about this danger.to our safety.

Anonymous said...

411. the post is his comment,no? and no one cares what you do with your money. you dont have to tell us you dont want to pay dues.

Justin said...

Now if only Mulgrew would have a direct conversation with the rank and file members of the union instead of this false representation he pushes on local news networks.

Anonymous said...

God I HATE Mulgrew. He simply spews shit to make the mayor feel comfortable and happy. Has he asked us about how we feel in regard to the 2 case rule? I thought the president of a union is supposed to speak for the members that he serves. We need a vote of no confidence right away.

Anonymous said...

6:18 agreed

I don't trust Mulgrew. Bring his workers back into school builidings beside us. He can show us how to get 5 year olds to stay 6 feet away from their teachers. Don't say vaccine-that about the variants.

Mulgrew needs to go. We need new leadership.

Anonymous said...

To all of you who feel schools aren’t safe to open, I ask:
- do you eat at restaurants?
-do you travel?
-do you go grocery shopping?
-do you leave your home?

If you answered yes, then keep quiet about schools reopening.

It’s time.

How much longer can this go on?

Everything is a risk. If you want no risk, never leave your home again.

Anonymous said...

848,
You compare going in for food for 5 minutes to "My students are at the point where they take their masks off and turn them into slingshots and roll their eyes when I tell them that a mask over their mouth and nose is not negotiable."

Anonymous said...

Then why doesnt Mulgrew go back to work???I dont get how doe, uft, and rrsp still stay home if they are relaxing rules and it is so safe.if stores and schools can put markers on the floor, so can these other agencies with their supply of private offices.this is a big sham.maybe he wants to climb and join city government?how can we oust him???impeach him so to speak?he is REALLY AWFUL AND HAS NO MORAL COMPASS! .I guess he is able to sleep at night because he fantasizes about the colleague he was caught banging at work!
When are elections??

Anonymous said...

This is what I pay dues for?

Anonymous said...

Why can't Mulgrew go back to work?
Why can't the arbitrator go back to work?
Why can't success academy charter schools return to their schools?

Why?

TeachNY said...

Thank GOD someone has said it. Seriously. The world is going back to work. What about bus drivers? LIRR? Day care workerS? Same crap! I bet people will be sending their kids to summer camps this year too. Those are open as well. The “shut everything down until September” people really baffle me. There’s Covid testing in place. There is safety equipment. What more do people want? Honestly, at this point take an unpaid leave. If people are truly afraid of their lives, sell your house. Move to a cheaper place while you stay out of work. There are options. People just don’t like them. If you’re truly afraid for your life, you can rise up from moving or selling a house to stay out of work.

Anonymous said...

Yang who had a conference with Mulgrew hinted at merit pay for teachers. Now we'll really have segregated schools. MOre pay for those working at Stuy, Townsend Harris, Bard, etc. while those breaking their backs at the low performing school would get screwed out of money.

Anonymous said...

Just curious...are the leaders and staff of other city unions back to work?
Another point:families are thrown off flight because of one unmasked 2 year old.Yet, we are expected to sit all day with unmasked students.Yet planes have hepa filters and classrooms have...??? Will be always be villainized???

Anonymous said...

902,

If tht is happening, you need to call admin ASAP.

Where I work, two kids were sent to remote for not wearing masks.

Anonymous said...

Ahh. The WHY questions. Again. Why? Because they can. They have screwed you throughout the past and will continue to screw you in the future but no matter what they do you will pay dues and vote for who they tell you to vote for. Teachers are their bitch. That’s why.

TJL said...

9:02 What restaurants serve meals in 5 minutes? What airline flights are 5 minutes? Was Easter dinner 5 minutes?

TJL said...

Michael Kane from Teachers for Choice explained how the 2 case rule was a way to rig the system to keep schools closed.

https://nyteachersforchoice.wordpress.com/2021/03/27/nyc-in-school-covid-testing-is-designed-to-close-schools-not-keep-them-open/

Anonymous said...

The biggest issue is the mayor made this proclamation with no plan. He is reckless with his words.

Hey, you want to get rid of the rule? Fine. Have a plan.

The truth is that right now, this school year is lost. We should be planning for September

Scruffygrognard said...

Mulgrew has to go. When can we vote his ass out?

Anonymous said...

“We should anticipate, come September 2021, that schools should be full-fledged in person and all of our children back in the classroom,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the federal agency’s director, told ABC News.

Teachers, students and their parents should be prepared to say goodbye to remote learning — regardless of whether children are vaccinated or not, she said in an interview on Instagram Live.
https://nypost.com/2021/04/07/schools-should-be-fully-in-person-by-september-cdc-director/

Hopefully de blasio grows enough of a spine by sept. to make it happen.

Shelley said...

Mulgrew will be the President after the elections.

Unity will stay in power.

While those of us who oppose Mulgrew and Unity can't defeat them in elections, we need to think about how we can frustrate the agenda. By now it is clear that Mulgrew won't change because what he is doing, what Randi Weingarten is doing too, is working for Mulgrew and Unity and fro Randi and the AFT.

So, elections are approaching and there are several campaigns to defeat Mulgrew and Unity and we wish them luck.

But they will not topple Mulgrew or Unity this year.

It's possible that they will strike a serious blow to his control or to the power he wields. But I doubt this will happen.

But they will certainly send a message to Mulgrew and to unity if they manage to put a serious dent in his majorities. I think this is possible.

Now suppose my conjecture is accurate. I'm no prophet and I don't have a crystal ball, but suppose what I outlines is the outcome of the upcoming UFT elections.

Wouldn't a massive opt-out of dues movement compound the impact of that election message?

Though James and others quickly dismiss this option as counterproductive, I say it will work better than another failed election campaign, even if this election is the worst election result for Unity.

James Eterno said...

You are wrong in my opinion, Shelley as not enough people will do it and you give up your ability to participate in the union at the chapter level where it is democratic basically by opting out.

If you want to organize an opt out, please start your own blog as this is a pro-union, anti Unity Caucus blog.

Anonymous said...

James back to the same old message, posts about how horrible is, one negative story after another, then says this is a pro union blog and keep paying dues. So you are ok with a horrible union as long as there is one.

Shelley said...

At the risk of another anti-intellectual attack here I suggest another source. A lone wolf, as James sees it, or anyone who proposes methods outside his failed "democratic" ones is labeled anti-union.

Sometimes the collapse of the existing power includes the collapse of what are ostensibly its greatest challengers.

The rank and file are tired of business as usual. The current alternatives to business as usual is also business as usual.

It is time for the autonomous worker to take a stand.


The concept of the autonomous workman was developed in Benson Soffer, "A

Theory of Trade Union Development: The Role of the 'Autonomous' Workman," Labor

History, 1 (Spring, 1960), 141-63, and elaborated more fully in David Montgomery, Work-

ers' Control in America: Studies in the History of Work, Technology, and Labor Struggles

(Cambridge, England, 1979), ch. 1.

Soffer is cited here: an history that might be worth reading for parallels to what is happening across the US in labor today.

The small organization of Amazon workers may be a tipping point.

The War at Mingo Junction: The Autonomous Workman and the Decline of the Knights of Labor

Anonymous said...

Well, what do you know. Not surprising that the Murdoch owned NY Post and then Fox 5 news— have given Mulgrew an open forum.
I guess as long as the Fox media people have their ongoing goal of just trying to embarrass DeBlasio—with this new proclamation/rule..
The Fox establishment really despise Mulgrew and couldn’t give a hoot about any of the health risks/concerns of teachers and their students.

Anonymous said...

new rules start monday

Anonymous said...

New agreement between
@uft
&
@nycmayor
to give up 2 case rule leading to frequent school closures & instead double Covid testing in these schools to 40% to discern if this result of in-school transmission.

Bronx ATR said...

Shelly is correct James. This is a pro-union blog and most folks on here are pro-union, but the entity you are trying to sustain is no longer a union. It hasn’t been since Randi made her deal with Bloomberg in 2005, promptly took a promotion and put Mulgrew in charge. The only way to get Randi and her appointed charge’s attention is by withholding dues. It just doesn’t make sense to pay to be treated like this. And it doesn’t matter what you or Shelly or I say - there will be many opting out this June unless, and this is a real possibility, Mulgrew pulls a unicorn out of his ass in the form of an early retirement incentive, ATR buyout or something that greatly alleviates the tortuous reality of what is now merely a disgusting job. There is no moral working class Catholic or Jewish guilt in remaining loyal to an organization that has facilitated that horrid transformation.

nerd said...

We need some muckrakers back to investigate the questionable dealings between the union and the city. No other city union bends over backwards like the UFT.

Other city unions (FDNY, NYPD , DSNY) hate the UFT management for setting giveback precedents and being

Mulgrew has no ability to say "No!" (Pretends he does.)

Of course with electronic/digital voting, it can all be rigged easily like calls at virtual assemblies can be screened.

Just an endangered CL said...

Minimal-invasive in-school testing does not test for asymptomatic COVID. They knwo this and are purposely skewing the data and falsifying the truth of what is really happening in our schools.

jeff said...

Make it simple. The vote mulgrew out, band together...Hasn't worked. And it won't We all hope and wish, but we have EVIDENCE that the union doesn't give a shit about us. See the change in the 2 case rule as another example. But they still can;t negotiate in arbitration.

Anonymous said...

I watched Norma Rae recently and realized that the UFT is basically a political organization, out for itself, not us.

Seems inevitable that large unions fall to the same fate, needing to elect representatives that eventually corrupt the union.

Based on my experience even teachers in the same building do not have each others back. I don't see how we can fix the union unless people actually want to be in a union, with the good and bad that comes with it.

Anonymous said...

I agree with 848, time for schools to open. Cannot continue like this, students are suffering immensely!

Anonymous said...

The CDC head is discussing impending doom with invasive variants, that are worse and targeting younger people, all while there aren’t enough vacancies ready fast enough to keep pace. What’s deBlasio’s and Mulgrew’s response - double down. The UFT is closed for in person anything and deBlasio is living in his own head as president or governor. Yes, let’s support the UFT efforts in their latest version of Russian Roulette.

Anonymous said...

TJL. School buildings have been open since Sept. Guess the rigging didn't go well.

Anonymous said...

TJL 902 is speaking of grocery shopping

Anonymous said...

Have fun with pay freezes with no backpay. Everyone in city is sacrificing. Only logical that teachers will sacrifice.

Anonymous said...

Mulgrew is the public face of our opportunism. Just like Shanker and Feldman he is there to sacrifice us to the bosses and the lesson has not yet been learned. The form of opportunism in the labor movement has not changed. We teachers need to see the pattern and do better.

Anonymous said...

5:46. It is d75.

Anonymous said...

@11:49, The city has more money now than it ever had. All the stimulus money from the government, plus taxing legalized marijuana, plus taxing sports betting, plus taxing the rich. There was no need for any of it. If deBlasio and Mulgrew start saying there has to be paid freezes, then teachers should just go ape shit on both of them. There should be no talk of any pay freezes; there should be substantial pay raises – something positive to keep people in this sham of a union. My medical co-pay is now 30 bucks - when was that agreed on by Mulgrew? Started out at nothing, then it went to $10, then $20 and now it’s $30. Someone told me Uft is in negotiations with the city to raise it to $50 a co-pay.

James Eterno said...

Shelley, Bronx ATR and anyone else calling for opting-out of the UFT,

I am not interested in opting out unless people do it as an organized effort and are planning something better. If you opt-out, you will be relinquishing your rights within your local chapter which in the schools are quite democratic.

For the hundredth time, this is a pro-union anti-UFT leadership blog. If you want to organize an opt-out drive, start your own blog, please, and do not hijack this one.

Thank you.

Bronx ATR said...

It is/was not my intention to hijack your blog. My apologies. I sincerely hope something works.

Anonymous said...

James, some schools have (admin licensed) out of classroom quasi admin union reps, brown nosing for the next AP job. How good a job do you think they're doing?

Answer: UFT award winning jobs.

James Eterno said...

Vote out any chapter leader who is in admin's pocket. Organize!

Anonymous said...

Shelley, itd have to be a large large amount. It would need to be organized, and have a clear goal in mind. If we just leave without a plan it would only consolidate Unity's strength. We'd need a majority in this action. Anything less wouldn't make a difference. But if you could organize such a thing, that it should be assumed that same mass of people could be organized to vote Untiy out. That would be the wiser move.

Anonymous said...

TeachNY is right in my mind.

I am not judging anyone who feels unsafe. However, ask yourself if you went to Easter dinner with family. Did you have holiday gatherings in the winter? Are you traveling this summer?

The world is reopening and this is a good thing in my mind.

Choices are simple: stay home and listen to fauci and cdc 24/7 or live your life.

I choose to live my life.

Ps, I traveled last week, wore masks in and out of the plane on an international flight and tested before, during and after. No covid. I was cautious.

My point is that life is happening and that’s good.

Anonymous said...

Live your life, but don’t lose it for Mulgrew, deBlasio and Cuomo.

https://nypost.com/2021/04/08/covid-variants-now-account-for-80-of-new-cases-in-nyc/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=message_app

Anonymous said...

.00167% of vaccinated people died after getting vaccine. This doesn’t mean the vaccine killed them. It just means some people died sometime after being vaccinated. Even if all died from the vaccine, is .00167% alarming? No it is not. The goal is not to die from COVID or not become ill enough to be hospitalized. If the goal has now changed to no one can ever feel sick, I’m out. Enough is enough. Time to open.

Anonymous said...

@6:17, I disagree. The variants are worse than the original. Kids are not getting vaccinated. The DOE and the Uft can and will fuck up a wet dream. No one can trust them to do anything correctly, especially if it’s important. I’m not going back inside a school until September, when there may be some kind of empirical evidence from the folks like you who choose to be defacto lab rats for Mulgrew and deBlasio. I certainly don’t wish anything bad to happen to you or anyone. But just because you or Mulgrew or deBlasio feel it’s safe doesn't make it safe; and just because many people are fed up with living like this doesn’t mean this is over. I make my own decisions, same as you. Many have an accommodation for the rest of the year and plan on using it. No one is rushing back into those buildings, including kids. The New York Times is reporting tens of thousands of students will go back based on deBlasio‘s comments to them. Very, very poor reporting from the New York Times. They should have reported tens of thousands students will not be going back because Bill deBlasio said they would.

Anonymous said...

9:44. It’s 6:17. You just showed everyone how to disagree in a non hostile intelligent way. Thank you.