This information is from WBEZ in Chicago:
The Chicago Teachers Union is setting the stage for all teachers and other members to refuse to work in-person beginning Wednesday in conditions they deem unsafe.
The union has scheduled a vote for its more than 25,000 members on Tuesday during the day, asking if they support refusing to work in-person starting Wednesday but to work virtually instead. Tuesday’s vote will be followed by a vote that afternoon by the union’s elected House of Delegates on the refusal action.
At a CTU virtual town hall Sunday evening, 80% of the 8,000 members on the call said they did not want to work in-person in Chicago Public Schools classrooms under current conditions, according to CTU members at the event. CPS classes resumed Monday after a two-week break amid the largest COVID-19 surge yet.
CPS teachers can only work remotely if it’s sanctioned by the Chicago Board of Education. And in an email to families Sunday evening, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said he stands “firmly behind the decision to protect our student’s physical and mental health and promote their academic progress by keeping CPS schools safely open for in-person learning.”
This action is triggering a showdown between the union and the school district, which could lock teachers out of their remote classrooms and prevent them from teaching. This would effectively shut down the school district.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday made clear where she stands.
“What we have learned from this pandemic is that schools are the safest place for students to be: we have spent over a $100 million to put mitigations in place, most CPS staff members are vaccinated, and we generally see little transmission in school settings,” she said in a statement. “Keeping kids safely in school where they can learn and thrive is what we should all be focused on.” Lightfoot also stressed the academic and emotional damage impact of remote learning.
This is what real unions do. They listen to their members. Meanwhile back in NYC, UFT President Michael Mulgrew's strategy looks as if it is to grovel to the new Mayor which will basically get us nowhere but an opposition caucus leader has filed a lawsuit to get the system to go remote.
We have news from Lydia Howrilka:
Case Update:
1. Corporation Counsel, representing NYC and the NYC DOE, has been assigned case.
2. CC called me on my prep to politely say, "I was assigned your case. By the way, the City says your case is meritless."
3. I told him, "I'm really not surprised you would say this but ok."
4. NY Post called me and said that they couldn't find my papers in the court system.
5. I called the Ex Parte Office and had this long back and forth conversation to find out that my case was assigned to a judge who is currently out on vacation!!!!! Thankfully I was able to convince the clerk to reassign my case.
We understand a judge has been assigned and the City is taking this seriously as they have already completed their response to the Article 78. You can sign a letter to the judge by clicking here. Lydia informed me this evening that 4,000 have signed on.
As for the United for Change, Presidential candidate Camille Eterno was interviewed on CBS News nationally.
Here is the soundbite quote they used:
Educators like Camille Eterno, a high school English teacher, are urging the mayor to listen.
"I recognize the need for students to be present in the buildings, but I'm also cognizant of the fact that if we're all bunched up together and we get sick, we're not going to be there anyway," said Eterno, who's been teaching for 24 years.
18 comments:
This clerk must either ordered to do that, or against us, seriously dumb!how stupid can one be to assign an emergency case to someone on vacation??either seriously mentally challenged or got those directions from a higher up-maybe someone with city connections.
And how is the safest place to be?of it is supposedly unsafe yet they go thete at 3 to stay!
My whole family had covid this time. All vaxxed, all boosted.
Some have health issues. Everyone is fine. It’s a head cold.
Hospitals are mostly people not vaccinated.
We can’t shut down and stop the economy.
The fear mongering has to stop. People need to work.
Bottom line: don’t read into the cases. Read into how many people are not vaxxed. That’s what the news won’t tell you.
The UFC/UFT has the opportunity to demand a safety strike, to organize a walk out, a sick out, a job action. But it won't. All they have done is go to the courts, where, they will get nothing for the members. So UFC/UFT is the same as the old boss. They are doing what Mulgrew does, and may still do, he may have a bit more success than UFC/UFT, but it's putting on a show that will ultimately give members little more than they have now. This is the MO of the UFT. Doesn't matter who is running the UFT, Unity or UFC, the same old tactics and strategies: go to court, wear red or black . . .blah blah interviews.
Where is the action? Where is the organization?
This revolution can not be televised. Can not be organized on Twitter, on Facebook, on Blogs.
We need the Street, People.
Mulgrew yet again drops that ball. Thank God for Solidarity/United For Change for doing unpaid work that the UFT should be doing as part of our dues payments. Mulgrew literally has nothing to do now since he threw up his hands to fighting for a delayed opening and a remote option. Maybe he is sick of being UFT president and he just does not care about running in the spring election. Even his die hard Unity flunkies are breaking ranks with him. This could be the prelude to a major change in UFT leadership.
Can anyone tell me where I should report this situation. We were told flat out by the mayor that schools would be doubling the number of students getting tested. My school only tested the same number of students this morning that they tested last time. This is an outrage. We are being flat out lied to. I'm sure this is happening in other schools as well. I already contacted my chapter leader.
Mulgrew is carrying the ball. He hasn't dropped anything. His job is to carry the ball for Adams & Co., for the Democrats who want the workers to go to work so the economy can recover.
Don't worry, the government has it handled.
Candidate Joe made a lot of promises on the campaign trail. Biden was confident that this whole virus thing —easy to just “shut it down.” As it turns out, the President is having some difficulty in that area, as the U.S. just set a new global daily record of 1 million COVID cases.
“The highly mutated variant drove U.S. cases to a record, the most — by a large margin — that any country has ever reported since the pandemic began more than two years ago. Monday’s number is almost double the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the U.S., which itself was a doubling from the prior week,” Bloomberg News reported.
Not a popular sentiment, but we can’t go and live in fear and stay locked down again.
Mental health is important.
What is the purpose of all these postings, James?
No strike.
No walk out.
No sick out.
Unity will win by another landslide.
Teachers will get sick.
Teachers are freezing to death.
Students aren't showing up and will pass anyway.
These take home tests will be taken incorrectly so the results will be invalid.
And we cant opt out...So exactly what would you like in service staff to do?
Whats everybody who voted for Biden worried about? He said during the debates about the pandemic "I will end this". Problem solved
Surprised the media is not reporting how he actually did solve this already.
Nyc schools closing threshold last year was 3% My guess is its at least 15-25% in my building but we continue to stay open Good job Mulgrew.
Mulgrew/Diblasio.Hochul/Biden what a winning Guess the voters deserve what they voted for.
Hospitalization rates and death rates have not spiked. Clearly Omicron is a different type of illness than the original or Delta variants. Our response to a much milder illness has to be different, too. How can you justify closing the schools? I know loads of people who have current COVID, and they are reporting very mild symptoms. How can we ignore this new reality? Closing schools takes a terrible toll on our students and their families. Nobody on this blog ever mentions that.
I am currently home receving a suprising positive for what I thought was simple congestion and a head cold. Then it dawned on me. If I hadn't been tested I would have thought I had a basic cold. I would have gone on about my business teaching my classes. Yes others would have become infected but many of them wouldn't have known they had it either. This time of year has historically been known for head colds, sinus congestion, and runny noses that have never stopped us before.
People being tested and testing positive and now panicking and racing off to the hospital. as crazy as this sounds while testing helps it also hurts. I am sitting at home able to work and willing to work but can't because my test was positive. Keeping people safe is one thing but have we taken this too far? I was vaccinated before any mandates and now I have covid. A disease that before vaccinations was a death sentence to many. Now my nose is stuffed but I can taste, smell, exercise, and sleep without issues. If I didn't test I wouldn't have even known.
Being unvaccinated is not a mandate it's a choice. When will it be time to let people live with their choice.
As a teacher who just recovered from Covid, I can tell you that my experience was not good. I had fever, fatigue, headache, and cough and I still have lingering dizziness. It basically put me on my ass for two weeks. It hits everybody differently but the fact is that many folks get it bad and can not work, let alone return in 10 days. I really wish people would stop with the bullshit of saying, "It's just a cold". Trust me, I would have rather had a cold than covid. Also, the parents of NYC know what is the best for their kids so Adams can keep his pie hold shut about saying kids have to be in school. A remote option should be available for any family that wants it this year.
Please tell my students that are in the hospital that school is safe. Tell them they are safe when they infect their entire family and more than half the class. There is even more learning loss keeping kids in school buildings than going remote. Most of the very few that attend class are mentally checked out. Did outreach today and found out 3 of my best students will not be returning because their parents switched them to Homeschooling.
I thought UFC was calling for a sick out? https://twitter.com/MOREcaucusUFT/status/1477389257660637193?t=P6QWtOVmpX8blJaePRm8sw&s=19
Oh yeah because your piece of shit fascist pussy Goldilocks former president had a real grip. This blog is useless because it’s a bunch of cowardly, spiteful right wing trump loving scaredy cats afraid to work
I had covid before break after being vaccinated and boosted…a head cold…I was fine.
This strain of covid is of bad. We can’t go remote. We owe it to the communities to show up. Honestly, when are we going to admit that this is not March of 2020.
Get the vax, get the booster and show up to work. If you test positive, take a few days.
School is more than learning. We are not babysitters, but this isn’t the summer where schools are expected to be closed.
It’s January. Schools need to be open. Remote sucks.
Please do not fool yourselves. The only reason we are open is to babysit. How can I teach my Algebra class when I have 2 English classes combined with my class. Still only a total of 8 students.
Also, tell the student in my class today that he is safe when he was just texted by his father telling him the entire family has tested positive and he should go to his aunt's house. The boy's tears were heartbreaking.
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