Time For Unions To Take A Stand by Dr. Michael Flanagan

Table 111142799_10213715789568338_4462898410445319228_o.jpg

Our union leaders need to step up and take a stand against the reopening of schools. We, the membership of our national, state and local unions demand decisive leadership now. 

We are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Our working conditions are our children's learning conditions and damned if we will be returning to a virus infested environment.

Some unions are making conflicting statements, in one breath proclaiming that teachers and students will not return until the schools are safe, but in the very next breath pushing for federal funding to be in place so that we can reopen.

Money does not stop a virus. 

Unions must listen to their members and refuse to return until it is truly safe. Our union leadership can no longer vacillate between reopening and remaining closed, just to keep a seat of the political table. The same table that is seeking to serve up educators as its main course. Covid-19 is deadly and it is not contained. 

This is not an attack on teacher’s unions, this is their call to arms. Defend your membership. At all costs. 

Lead, or get out of the way. 

We should not be justifying a president who is suppressing information about Covid-19 and blocking the CDC from testifying to congress. He is pushing school reopening for political points and to increase the profits of Wall Street companies. He will let the bodies pile up straight through November 3rd. His administration is also trying to eliminate funding for testing, to coincide with his repeated calls for less testing.

The senate majority leader is pushing for blanket immunity for businesses and schools that reopen, and waivers for teachers to sign before returning. We have a governor that is suing a city for enforcing mandatory mask wearing despite their state seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Even in so-called “blue states” like New York, our Governor and the Mayor of NYC delayed the closing of schools in March, and refused to release the information on schools that reported staff who were sick. They did not follow the CDC protocols for closing the schools and deep cleaning.

These politicians have lost their credibility, and are clearly demonstrating no concern for the lives of teachers and children. They are suppressing information and outright lying. So why are our unions still playing this game?

For a union to echo these clearly false political talking points to its members, as if it were somehow fact is disingenuous to say the least, and an accessory to manslaughter at the most. 

If we are discussing morgue trucks being sent to the same cities where schools are set to reopen in a matter of days, then we should not be having that conversation at all. 

These are the same cities where 75% of families “want” their children back in school, but those same people will not even wear a mask for ten minutes when shopping at Walmart. 

None of these decisions are being made to benefit a child’s academics. Even in hybrid form, children will be isolated at school, wearing masks. Breathing the same air, whether through AC’s which recirculate within the same room, or central air, which recirculate through the school building. 

Most schools do not have the infrastructure to even begin to implement the CDC guidelines of “deep cleaning” every night, regardless of a possible federal funding package. Not to mention the lack of testing that will allow for one infected person to contaminate an entire school.

It is time to stop holding out for funding at the risk of our lives. Union leaders must listen to their members and refuse to return until it is truly safe. Not for political expediency, or because of the pressure put on through divide and conquer tactics. Speak for the members, be our voice. 

Do not sugar coat bullsh*t to try to make it easier to swallow. Union leaders work for their members, not the self serving politicians they are so enamored with. Federal or state governments may be able to force us back, but we should not have any union leaders holding the door open for us as we step into a virus incubator. 

None of us can teach from an ICU bed. Or a grave. 

Educators will be refusing to return to dangerous schools. We will be using sickouts and strikes if necessary to save lives. We will not blindly walk into sickness and death because of lies and political pressure.

We need our union leaders to commit to us-their members-not corrupt politicians. Call them, write them, put them to the vote. We pay dues and make political contributions, it is time for that to pay off. 

Our lives are at stake. 

#RefuseToReturn

Michael Flanagan