Today the AFT Executive Council unanimously passed a resolution that supported vaccinations.
WASHINGTON—The executive council of the American Federation of Teachers last night unanimously passed a resolution guiding the union on workplace vaccination policies. The resolution is one of several passed by the board since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, designed to protect the health and safety of AFT members and the communities we serve. It was brought to the council in light of the significant change in circumstances with the delta variant and rising COVID-19 cases, infections in children(link is external), and an ongoing effort by the union to educate members and communities on the importance of vaccination.
In response to the passage, AFT President Randi Weingarten said:
“Throughout this pandemic, our No. 1 priority as a union has been to keep our members, our communities and those we serve safe. COVID is mutating, it’s spreading to kids, and vaccines remain our best defense to protect people and prevent the spread of disease; prevent hospitals from overflowing; keep our economy functioning, plus reopen—and keep open—our schools for full-time in-person learning.
“The variant and ensuing rise in cases have changed the situation: More employers are considering vaccination policies, including mandates. And while we still believe the best way to increase vaccinations is through education and voluntary adoption, we want to be in a position to work with our employers on workplace vaccination policies, including how they’re implemented—so people who need to be vaccinated can get accommodations, so everyone has access to vaccines and time to get them, and so no one is penalized for medical or religious reasons. Moving forward, we will bargain the impact of these vaccination policies.
“We believe that workplace policies should be done with working people, not to them. In fact, several of our affiliates have already worked with elected officials, school districts and other employers on vaccine or test policies. This once-in-a-generation pandemic calls for us to work together to keep people safe and put COVID-19 behind us.
“As educators, healthcare professionals and public employees, we play an important role in our communities, and the overwhelming majority of us are vaccinated. We will continue to advocate for masking, testing, and accurate science-based information about vaccinations to combat the rampant disinformation that’s literally killing American people. Vaccines work. Vaccines are safe. And vaccines save lives.”
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
To understand the anti-vaccine, maskless mob, mostly made of Tea Party people and Traitor Trump’s mindless MAGA minions that control the Republican Party, know that this group of zombies wants to return to the 18th century – you know: no roads, no TVs, no electricity, no radio, no cars, no internet, no phones, women don’t have the vote, there are still slaves to abuse and work to death, no public schools, women don’t have the vote (I already said that), no modern medicine or science, but there is one modern device they want to keep, and that is automatic weapons. This fascist/racist mob refuses to be stuck with black powder muskets. With one shot of firearms like that, they won’t be able to mow the rest of us down as fast as they dream of.
Oh, and this mindless mob also wants to find Hillary Clinton guilty of witchcraft and burn her at the stake.
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Good for the AFT, good for us all.
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However, it sounds like the AFT does not want to fully support a mandate: “The variant and ensuing rise in cases have changed the situation: More employers are considering vaccination policies, including mandates. And while we still believe the best way to increase vaccinations is through education and voluntary adoption, we want to be in a position to work with our employers on workplace vaccination policies, including how they’re implemented…. Moving forward, we will bargain the impact of these vaccination policies.”
And that was true of my union, NYSUT (NY State United Teachers), as of August 2nd: “What we have not supported is a vaccine mandate.”
Are these unions just adhering to the principle that labor policies should always be bargained, or is there still significant dissension in the ranks?
I found it interesting that another of Diane’s posts today announced that a vaccine requirement by Indiana University was upheld by the Seventh Circuit and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, referring to a “1905 Supreme Court decision, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which ruled that states may require all members of the public to be vaccinated against smallpox or pay a fine. The smallpox vaccination requirement allowed no exceptions.” For better and for worse, life is more complicated today.
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It is interesting that the US military made a clear one-size-fits all mask mandate. There was no mention or reference to any religion. Their position is in order to be mission ready, our people must be vaccinated. The unvaccinated, religious or otherwise, put everyone else at greater risk. They extend the pandemic and give Covid the opportunity to mutate into increasingly dangerous forms.
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TRUE, retired teacher!
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Has anyone noticed that this resolution does not actually call on districts to require all employees to be vaccinated?
“More employers are considering vaccination policies, including mandates. And while we still believe the best way to increase vaccinations is through education and voluntary adoption, we want to be in a position to work with our employers on workplace vaccination policies, including how they’re implemented—so people who need to be vaccinated can get accommodations, so everyone has access to vaccines and time to get them, and so no one is penalized for medical or religious reasons. Moving forward, we will bargain the impact of these vaccination policies.”
“We believe that workplace policies should be done with working people, not to them.”
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FLERP—-Thanks for mentioning this. I wrote a similar comment last night but it did make it through the ether and onto the blog here. I quoted these lines: “Moving forward, we will bargain the impact of these vaccination policies. We believe that workplace policies should be done with working people, not to them.”
My question: Does this quote indicate the union is standing on their principles of solidarity, consultation and negotiation, or do they have significant dissension in the ranks?
Also, my union, NYSUT (NY State United Teachers), issued a statement on August 2nd saying “What we have not supported is a mask mandate”.
Just what is going on? Or, to paraphrase the old riddle: When is a mandate not a mandate?
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If you ended up with the Pfizer vaccine, it is only 42% effective as of July against the Delta variant if you got your immunization in January. The AFT NEEDS to advocate for boosters for teachers in a couple of months since we got our shots in March.
I also believe every other essential worker like health care, grocery store, etc workers should also be eligible for the booster according to when they received their vaccination.
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This is, I think, an interesting moral question. About 31% of the world’s population has received 1 dose of a COVID vaccine, almost all in the richer countries. Is it morally permissible to give folks in rich countries a third dose before most of the people in the world have received any dose at all?
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Nobody here will give a straight answer to that question.
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Wearing a mask indoors until the pandemic is under control is really not a big deal.
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FLERP,
I think we now have evidence that your conjecture is true. For many people, Where you stand does depend on where you sit.
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The fact that the vaccinated can spread the virus (whatever the vaccine) also highlights the continued critical importance of indoor public place mask-wearing by everyone (including the vaccinated) — importance which has actually never disappeared, despite the changing CDC stance.
In schools, mask wearing by everyone remains critical regardless of the vaccination status of the adults.
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Would you say that everybody should wear masks in school buildings, regardless of whether they have received a Covid vaccination (whatever the vaccination), as long as the vaccinated can spread the virus?
If these conditions were true for 10 years, would your position change?
Has everyone lost their goddamn mind?
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It became clear long ago that you never had one.
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And please spare me the “poor me” routine.
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It’s pathetic.
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You are nothing if not inconsistent/incoherent.
One moment you are complaining about the lack of inperson instruction and the very next you are complaining about people having to wear masks in schools.
Let’s ignore for a moment the fact that it is quite possible for a vaccinated person to spread the virus regardless of the vaccine.
There is another minor issue: millions of young school age children have not been vaccinated and masks are the ONLY line of defense against spread of the virus to them.
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How about this as a proposed partial solution: require vaccination as a condition if attending high school. And require all employees to be vaccinated. And no masks. This is actually doable in some high-vaccination areas. Would you be ok with that, or would you still insist that everybody wear masks in a school where every single person is vaccinated?
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They might change their stance tomorrow, of course, but here’s the latest CDC recommendation regarding masks in schools
“Due to the circulating and highly contagious Delta variant, CDC recommends universal indoor masking by all students (age 2 and older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.”
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html
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And here’s essentially the same recommendation from American Academy of Pediatrics
“In addition to vaccinations, the AAP recommends a layered approach to make school safe for all students, teachers and staff in the guidance here. That includes a recommendation that everyone older than age 2 wear masks, regardless of vaccination status”
https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2021/american-academy-of-pediatrics-updates-recommendations-for-opening-schools-in-fall-2021/
But hey, like me, these people!e have all lost their minds.
So you can safely pay them no need.
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No heed.
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W e should all emulate stable genius DeSantis, who has clearly not lost his mind, as proven by his statement that
“I think kids are very low risk…I’m confident that things will go well.” [In schools, with no masks] and by his sale of campaign merchandise bearing slogans like
“How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?”
Especially in schools. How indeed?
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“stable genius DeSantis” — ‘stable’ as in horse stables full of brown stuff, on which his whole life and career is built on.
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