I spoke to UFT General Counsel Beth Norton about Unvaccinated Teachers

Here's the facts from the NYC Teacher Union

After I confronted UFT President Michael Mulgrew at the NYC Labor Day Parade this past Saturday, Mulgrew had the union’s general counsel Beth Norton call me this morning to discuss what the landscape is like for unvaccinated educators returning to NYC Schools.

The following is true for all such workers:

1. NYC DOE requires a legal waiver for all returning employees

2. Norton says the UFT opposed this when it was first discussed with NYC DOE sometime around February, but NYC refused to negotiate

3. When I asked Norton if UFT will use its leverage against NYC on this point she said the union did not have leverage in this area

4. Norton added, “There are some things that are not subject to bargaining”

According to Norton the UFT is 100% done with challenging the legitimacy or legality of the vaccine mandate. They joined the MLC lawsuit in 2021 but lost, and that lawsuit is completely dead with no appeals to come.

So when Michael Mulgrew said to me on the streets of NYC during the Labor Day Parade that UFT was a part of the win TEACHERS FOR CHOICE and Children’s Health Defense had in DiCapua v. City of New York, there is absolutely no factual basis for that statement. UFT has given up any attempt to “make whole” those of us who were illegally discriminated against with NYC’s illegal vaccine mandates. They stopped any legal action long ago, and they accept vaccine mandates as legal. I would say they are poised to do so again if another mandate comes in the future. The only thing that will prevent more vaccine mandates is our grassroots effort backed by organizations like Children’s Health Defense and principled individuals like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

(side note - I do NOT believe any vaccine mandate is coming in 2023 or 2024; it’s just too unpopular to hold up during this election season)

Three Groups of Unvaxxed Educators

There are 3 groups of potential unvaccinated rehires:

1. Group who signed a waiver in fall of 2021 to resign or retire with a “severance”

2. Group who signed a waiver in fall of 2021 to take an extended leave agreeing to comply with whatever the NYC health regulations were by fall of 2022 if they wanted to return, and

3. Group who was ultimately terminated in February of 2022 (includes me) and did not sign any waiver

SALARY - All of these groups will one-way-or-another get back to their salary step. The first two groups will start at the salary step they left off on. The third group will start at base salary and then have to apply to get reimbursed for experience credits, but they will get that back (I would guess that would take about 3 months to get worked out, but hopefully sooner).

TENURE - The first two groups who signed a waiver in fall of 2021 will maintain their tenure. The third group will have to go through a shortened 2 year probationary period to gain tenure.

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Norton told me it was difficult for the UFT to get this messaging out to people unless individuals called them. That’s just not true in my opinion. UFT has a massive communications apparatus. The reason none of this has been made plain and clear by the UFT to the public is because it just sucks. It shows extreme weakness on the side of the UFT, and perhaps something worse than being weak.

But what did we REALLY expect from them?

Randi Weingarten ushered in the acceptance of the vaccine mandate on Meet the Press in August of 2021. She gave the green light, and Mike Mulgrew just fell right in line with her desires instead of pushing back as the Chicago Teachers Union did.

TEACHERS FOR CHOICE is sympathetic with any-and-every-one who has no choice but to go back to work with NYC. We do not advise anyone to sign a waiver because it takes away your rights to recoup losses from the illegal mandate, but we don’t advise you to starve, lose your home, get divorced, or leave the state because you have no income. These are tough decisions for all of us to make. We support you no matter what you decide and continue to pray for all of us.

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One final note on waivers: some are saying they did not have to sign a waiver and are still back at their jobs. If that's the case good for you. You are not required to get that waiver signed, NYC is. So if this isnthe case for you it is fortunate.