8-30-21
Legendary Harvard-trained civil rights attorney and Progressive Democrat Michael Sussman fully supports TEACHERS FOR CHOICE calling on our supporters to leave the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) union.
About 6 months ago while finishing one lawsuit and beginning another with Sussman I had asked his legal advice on whether I and my supporters should leave the union; without hesitation he said “YES!” He believed it was both legal and moral to do so. TEACHERS FOR CHOICE did not take that advice 6 months ago because we felt it was our responsibility to attempt to influence and engage our union leadership to represent us as is their fiduciary responsibility. We tried damn hard to do so, the culmination of which came on August 18th when we met virtually with Randi Weingarten and AFT for over an hour.
Sussman was one of a handful of people who knew in advance I was going to publicly resign from the UFT at our August 25th protest at City Hall in NYC. Below is a statement from Sussman regarding my decision to resign from the union and call on my fellow brothers & sisters still in the UFT to join me in rejecting the tyrannical reign of UFT President Michael Mulgrew and AFT President Randi Weingarten – mk
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I read with interest your decision to resign from your union. While unions cannot always represent every interest and necessarily include people with a multiplicity of views, no union should disown the perspective of a significant proportion of its members without a robust discussion and debate. Authoritarian union leaders, like authoritarian governors, should be a thing of the past.
I believe there are middle grounds which the union should have argued strongly for: if you resist vaccines, test, and wear a mask. To me, those willing to do nothing cannot be protected easily in times like these, but power should never be abused and there are alternatives to mandatory vaccinations. Ms
Teachers For Choice 