Email from Michael Mulgrew

The following email was forwarded to me by one of our supporters. That supporter had sent the TEACHERS FOR CHOICE Collective Bargaining Action Alert Email to Mulgrew, Weingarten and Pallotta. Mulgrew responded with the following:

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Dear ________,

I appreciate your frustrations with all of the constant changes we are dealing with due to the pandemic.  The city’s directive that all workers either need to be vaccinated or be tested weekly if they are not, is being collectively bargained by the Municipal Labor Council (MLC).  All of the city Unions are part of the MLC.  The law firms who work for the MLC have been crystal clear that the city has the legal authority to take this action.  However the vaccine is NOT being mandated the weekly testing for those who have not provided proof of a vaccine IS.  

Since the employer is mandating the testing we have the right to demand that they either provide the testing at the worksite during work time or that appropriate compensation is made available to those who they can not accommodate during the workday. This bargaining is happening now and we are part of it.

I wish that we were not dealing with any of this but we are all living in a pandemic so we have no choice but to deal with hundreds of issues that we never imagined of.  The way out is to go through it and I pray that we are out of this soon.

Be well and be safe,

Michael