Parents: Would you support a teacher strike if it means there is no DL?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

You assume that you think? Weird phrasing but ok.

Again, people get to look at the union’s actions and comment. It’s odd that the union seems to think people who have a stake in their decisions are creating a problem by discussing those actions. Take responsibility for your actions and communication. Hate to tell you this if this is not known to you. but the public is now involved in the union’s workings. Bc the union impacts so much more than just the union members.

Eh, I made a mistake in the phrasing.
You never cared before and you still don’t care now. It’s unlikely your kid will die or get very ill so I understand why your only issue is your child. However by that same token I think it shouldn’t be surprising teachers are now thinking af themselves first and don’t want your opinion about our safety.

My problem is not with parents it’s with DCPS. I’m perfectly willing to teach in person once my school’s issues are fixed. I’d also prefer full vaccination. My friend in CA was FULLY vaccinated weeks ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

You assume that you think? Weird phrasing but ok.

Again, people get to look at the union’s actions and comment. It’s odd that the union seems to think people who have a stake in their decisions are creating a problem by discussing those actions. Take responsibility for your actions and communication. Hate to tell you this if this is not known to you. but the public is now involved in the union’s workings. Bc the union impacts so much more than just the union members.

+1 million

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

You assume that you think? Weird phrasing but ok.

Again, people get to look at the union’s actions and comment. It’s odd that the union seems to think people who have a stake in their decisions are creating a problem by discussing those actions. Take responsibility for your actions and communication. Hate to tell you this if this is not known to you. but the public is now involved in the union’s workings. Bc the union impacts so much more than just the union members.

+1 million

You’re only 1 person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

You assume that you think? Weird phrasing but ok.

Again, people get to look at the union’s actions and comment. It’s odd that the union seems to think people who have a stake in their decisions are creating a problem by discussing those actions. Take responsibility for your actions and communication. Hate to tell you this if this is not known to you. but the public is now involved in the union’s workings. Bc the union impacts so much more than just the union members.

Eh, I made a mistake in the phrasing.
You never cared before and you still don’t care now. It’s unlikely your kid will die or get very ill so I understand why your only issue is your child. However by that same token I think it shouldn’t be surprising teachers are now thinking af themselves first and don’t want your opinion about our safety.

My problem is not with parents it’s with DCPS. I’m perfectly willing to teach in person once my school’s issues are fixed. I’d also prefer full vaccination. My friend in CA was FULLY vaccinated weeks ago.

I care about the union now, but no I didn’t before. That’s bc the union didn’t impact my life before and it does now. Um...did I have to come out of the womb caring about the WTU for it to matter? The argument is specious.

But you’ve deflected the of conversation from “don’t discuss the union’s actions publicly!” to “you don’t care about teacher safety.” I mean, at this stage it’s just a tired ploy. But for funnies I’ll play along for a moment: I’m happy that you say you will teach when fully vaccinated. The WTU’s own communication suggests they think teacher vaccination is not enough. I would agree that in the present that other mitigation factors are necessary.....it would be pleasant for the WTU to state AND THEN STICK TO what actions will provide them with a level of non-zero risk they can work with. Instead, as in the case of the last arbitration, they say that they aren’t happy with the MOU that they signed. So I have no faith that they will ever be satisfied, and will go on threatening a strike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

You assume that you think? Weird phrasing but ok.

Again, people get to look at the union’s actions and comment. It’s odd that the union seems to think people who have a stake in their decisions are creating a problem by discussing those actions. Take responsibility for your actions and communication. Hate to tell you this if this is not known to you. but the public is now involved in the union’s workings. Bc the union impacts so much more than just the union members.

Eh, I made a mistake in the phrasing.
You never cared before and you still don’t care now. It’s unlikely your kid will die or get very ill so I understand why your only issue is your child. However by that same token I think it shouldn’t be surprising teachers are now thinking af themselves first and don’t want your opinion about our safety.

My problem is not with parents it’s with DCPS. I’m perfectly willing to teach in person once my school’s issues are fixed. I’d also prefer full vaccination. My friend in CA was FULLY vaccinated weeks ago.

I care about the union now, but no I didn’t before. That’s bc the union didn’t impact my life before and it does now. Um...did I have to come out of the womb caring about the WTU for it to matter? The argument is specious.

But you’ve deflected the of conversation from “don’t discuss the union’s actions publicly!” to “you don’t care about teacher safety.” I mean, at this stage it’s just a tired ploy. But for funnies I’ll play along for a moment: I’m happy that you say you will teach when fully vaccinated. The WTU’s own communication suggests they think teacher vaccination is not enough. I would agree that in the present that other mitigation factors are necessary.....it would be pleasant for the WTU to state AND THEN STICK TO what actions will provide them with a level of non-zero risk they can work with. Instead, as in the case of the last arbitration, they say that they aren’t happy with the MOU that they signed. So I have no faith that they will ever be satisfied, and will go on threatening a strike.

You should come out of the womb caring for human life, yea.

And I didn’t say you couldn’t talk about the union, you misunderstood. I said the ‘former union president.’

I can’t answer that, I can only say what teachers have discussed as a group and what has been discussed has not always been reflected by union leadership. The point is teachers still don’t feel safe and even if they do teach in person I promise people who hold distrust, bitterness, or fear in their hearts will not be a good or as good a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, former union leader here:

So, this is obviously bad. First, there's a clear solidarity problem within the union, where you do have union members saying they don't support what their union is doing, posting internal emails here, etc. That doesn't bode well for collective action, especially a strike which will leave each member legally vulnerable. The WTU membership would have to be VERY serious and VERY committed in order to pull off a strike, but it seems like they're not. This suggests to me that if we're aware of it, management is aware of it. This is why management is pre-emptively invoking the courts--to remind members of their potential legal peril.

Now, we have all seen clear communication from the WTU about a vague threat of a strike. This was a bad move for a couple of reasons. They've tipped their hand and allowed management to prepare ahead of time AND by saying they're calling for a vote, they're indicating that they don't know if the whole membership is on board.

You do not ever want management to realize that you don't have enough people on board to strike meaningfully. This is basically your main union power, and once its gone, your union is toothless.

They went into this completely frivolously. It's appalling strategy. There are basically two outcomes: they demonstrate that they can't/aren't willing to strike, reducing the power of the WTU immensely or they do strike and put themselves in extreme legal peril, which could cause enough damage to destroy the union.

The best thing they could do right now is to stop talking about it and act like they never said anything.

Your outside analysis is pretty good. I've been watching this from the inside shocked at how it played out - one major flaw in this case (no secret here, dots are easily connected) is how much she relied on external forces, city council for one, to act on behalf of the union.All talk amounting to no action. Lots of wasted time with the council. Also creating the narrative of "safe" and making assumptions on behalf of parents/guardians, etc really early on and never considering pivoting and/or changing the messaging based on listening to the community rather than telling them what to think.

Notifying the union membership at large what the implications of a strike are, at this point, is a dereliction of duty when it could have been messaged months ago. This was never going to end well.

Yes, whoever created the "only when safe" talking point should be flogged. It means everything and nothing at once. Some on here seem to define "only when safe" to mean "no risk" which is absurd. I can no longer hear people use this phrase without rolling my eyes.

Like they could have fired almost 5,000 people

Do those 5,000 people want to lose their salaries, health insurance and years built toward (but not yet achieved) retirement? Do they really want to play chicken with their careers, particularly those who are eyeing administration as their next step? There would have been many teachers who would not have participated in the strike because, guess what, they don't agree with it. The union did a piss poor job. My child's teacher has done an amazing job.

Teachers have no retirement plan in DC. Just another slap in the face.

Guess what out of those 5k at least half would have participated and that’s enough. No one wants to risk their life. I just started IPL and already there’s 2 positive cases!! It doesn’t make me feel safe to now have to quarantine and wait for my test. It doesn’t make my wonderful kids and families feel safe either. I had quite a few parents message me because their child was riddled with anxiety asking their parents if they could FaceTime me to make sure I’m ok.

So yea teachers are amazing and no one treats us like it. It’s not just about money or benefits it’s about being respected and seen as humans, not just an expendable teaching machine. I came back because I don’t view your children as just a student, I try to give them as much love, care, and nurturing as possible.

But now I’m a bad person because DCPS hasn’t shown me it’s safe. They’ve shown me they don’t care about anything except green and that’s a stark reality check.

Welcome to EMPLOYMENT

+1

And we have to move past the hysteria of cases occurring. This is what happens- you’ve probably been exposed to several COVID positive people in the past 10 months. For the vast majority of people exposed it’s been fine. Lots of people don’t even contract COVID when maskless in a room with a symptomatic person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

You assume that you think? Weird phrasing but ok.

Again, people get to look at the union’s actions and comment. It’s odd that the union seems to think people who have a stake in their decisions are creating a problem by discussing those actions. Take responsibility for your actions and communication. Hate to tell you this if this is not known to you. but the public is now involved in the union’s workings. Bc the union impacts so much more than just the union members.

Eh, I made a mistake in the phrasing.
You never cared before and you still don’t care now. It’s unlikely your kid will die or get very ill so I understand why your only issue is your child. However by that same token I think it shouldn’t be surprising teachers are now thinking af themselves first and don’t want your opinion about our safety.

My problem is not with parents it’s with DCPS. I’m perfectly willing to teach in person once my school’s issues are fixed. I’d also prefer full vaccination. My friend in CA was FULLY vaccinated weeks ago.

I care about the union now, but no I didn’t before. That’s bc the union didn’t impact my life before and it does now. Um...did I have to come out of the womb caring about the WTU for it to matter? The argument is specious.

But you’ve deflected the of conversation from “don’t discuss the union’s actions publicly!” to “you don’t care about teacher safety.” I mean, at this stage it’s just a tired ploy. But for funnies I’ll play along for a moment: I’m happy that you say you will teach when fully vaccinated. The WTU’s own communication suggests they think teacher vaccination is not enough. I would agree that in the present that other mitigation factors are necessary.....it would be pleasant for the WTU to state AND THEN STICK TO what actions will provide them with a level of non-zero risk they can work with. Instead, as in the case of the last arbitration, they say that they aren’t happy with the MOU that they signed. So I have no faith that they will ever be satisfied, and will go on threatening a strike.

+1. And parents will discuss whatever we want, and we don't need union approval to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, former union leader here:

So, this is obviously bad. First, there's a clear solidarity problem within the union, where you do have union members saying they don't support what their union is doing, posting internal emails here, etc. That doesn't bode well for collective action, especially a strike which will leave each member legally vulnerable. The WTU membership would have to be VERY serious and VERY committed in order to pull off a strike, but it seems like they're not. This suggests to me that if we're aware of it, management is aware of it. This is why management is pre-emptively invoking the courts--to remind members of their potential legal peril.

Now, we have all seen clear communication from the WTU about a vague threat of a strike. This was a bad move for a couple of reasons. They've tipped their hand and allowed management to prepare ahead of time AND by saying they're calling for a vote, they're indicating that they don't know if the whole membership is on board.

You do not ever want management to realize that you don't have enough people on board to strike meaningfully. This is basically your main union power, and once its gone, your union is toothless.

They went into this completely frivolously. It's appalling strategy. There are basically two outcomes: they demonstrate that they can't/aren't willing to strike, reducing the power of the WTU immensely or they do strike and put themselves in extreme legal peril, which could cause enough damage to destroy the union.

The best thing they could do right now is to stop talking about it and act like they never said anything.

Your outside analysis is pretty good. I've been watching this from the inside shocked at how it played out - one major flaw in this case (no secret here, dots are easily connected) is how much she relied on external forces, city council for one, to act on behalf of the union.All talk amounting to no action. Lots of wasted time with the council. Also creating the narrative of "safe" and making assumptions on behalf of parents/guardians, etc really early on and never considering pivoting and/or changing the messaging based on listening to the community rather than telling them what to think.

Notifying the union membership at large what the implications of a strike are, at this point, is a dereliction of duty when it could have been messaged months ago. This was never going to end well.

Yes, whoever created the "only when safe" talking point should be flogged. It means everything and nothing at once. Some on here seem to define "only when safe" to mean "no risk" which is absurd. I can no longer hear people use this phrase without rolling my eyes.

Like they could have fired almost 5,000 people

Do those 5,000 people want to lose their salaries, health insurance and years built toward (but not yet achieved) retirement? Do they really want to play chicken with their careers, particularly those who are eyeing administration as their next step? There would have been many teachers who would not have participated in the strike because, guess what, they don't agree with it. The union did a piss poor job. My child's teacher has done an amazing job.

Teachers have no retirement plan in DC. Just another slap in the face.

Guess what out of those 5k at least half would have participated and that’s enough. No one wants to risk their life. I just started IPL and already there’s 2 positive cases!! It doesn’t make me feel safe to now have to quarantine and wait for my test. It doesn’t make my wonderful kids and families feel safe either. I had quite a few parents message me because their child was riddled with anxiety asking their parents if they could FaceTime me to make sure I’m ok.

So yea teachers are amazing and no one treats us like it. It’s not just about money or benefits it’s about being respected and seen as humans, not just an expendable teaching machine. I came back because I don’t view your children as just a student, I try to give them as much love, care, and nurturing as possible.

But now I’m a bad person because DCPS hasn’t shown me it’s safe. They’ve shown me they don’t care about anything except green and that’s a stark reality check.

So the takeaways are :

- as a teacher you don’t understand something as simple as the basics of the spread of Covid
- you were very concerned for your safety - but didn’t take a few minutes to educate yourself about Covid basics
- it is safe - science and medicine both say this - but you as a teacher think both are wrong and dismiss them
- the two positive tests after one day in the classroom were not the result of an in school transmission
- parents have encouraged hysterics and done a bad job helping children - they should not be worried about you to the point they are
- I hope you made this story up for drama - otherwise it makes my already dim view of teachers even worse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

You assume that you think? Weird phrasing but ok.

Again, people get to look at the union’s actions and comment. It’s odd that the union seems to think people who have a stake in their decisions are creating a problem by discussing those actions. Take responsibility for your actions and communication. Hate to tell you this if this is not known to you. but the public is now involved in the union’s workings. Bc the union impacts so much more than just the union members.

Eh, I made a mistake in the phrasing.
You never cared before and you still don’t care now. It’s unlikely your kid will die or get very ill so I understand why your only issue is your child. However by that same token I think it shouldn’t be surprising teachers are now thinking af themselves first and don’t want your opinion about our safety.

My problem is not with parents it’s with DCPS. I’m perfectly willing to teach in person once my school’s issues are fixed. I’d also prefer full vaccination. My friend in CA was FULLY vaccinated weeks ago.

I care about the union now, but no I didn’t before. That’s bc the union didn’t impact my life before and it does now. Um...did I have to come out of the womb caring about the WTU for it to matter? The argument is specious.

But you’ve deflected the of conversation from “don’t discuss the union’s actions publicly!” to “you don’t care about teacher safety.” I mean, at this stage it’s just a tired ploy. But for funnies I’ll play along for a moment: I’m happy that you say you will teach when fully vaccinated. The WTU’s own communication suggests they think teacher vaccination is not enough. I would agree that in the present that other mitigation factors are necessary.....it would be pleasant for the WTU to state AND THEN STICK TO what actions will provide them with a level of non-zero risk they can work with. Instead, as in the case of the last arbitration, they say that they aren’t happy with the MOU that they signed. So I have no faith that they will ever be satisfied, and will go on threatening a strike.

You should come out of the womb caring for human life, yea.

And I didn’t say you couldn’t talk about the union, you misunderstood. I said the ‘former union president.’

I can’t answer that, I can only say what teachers have discussed as a group and what has been discussed has not always been reflected by union leadership. The point is teachers still don’t feel safe and even if they do teach in person I promise people who hold distrust, bitterness, or fear in their hearts will not be a good or as good a teacher.

That person by the way wasn’t a teacher’s union president just another union. No reason not to share analysis.

I get you feel unsafe and unappreciated. I feel like in a normal year we parents go nuts appreciating our teachers. There are multiple gifts and a whole week of teacher appreciation. I think you deserve it but why isn’t this enough? Why is teaching the only profession that requires constant gifts and accolades? What is wrong here? It’s not the money in DC anyway, is it really such a shit job? Being with our kids all day? But if it was, why do our daycare teachers, nannies etc never complain and get far less appreciation? I am really asking, because somehow it seems like this setup is the problem - you’re always doing is a massive favor by being with our kids, we always owe you something, and now we owe you 100% safety from a disease which probably will never go away.

[Anonymous]

Basically I’m a little tired of this martyr complex. Which by the way I never experience with my own kids teachers but maybe that’s secretly what they think too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, former union leader here:

So, this is obviously bad. First, there's a clear solidarity problem within the union, where you do have union members saying they don't support what their union is doing, posting internal emails here, etc. That doesn't bode well for collective action, especially a strike which will leave each member legally vulnerable. The WTU membership would have to be VERY serious and VERY committed in order to pull off a strike, but it seems like they're not. This suggests to me that if we're aware of it, management is aware of it. This is why management is pre-emptively invoking the courts--to remind members of their potential legal peril.

Now, we have all seen clear communication from the WTU about a vague threat of a strike. This was a bad move for a couple of reasons. They've tipped their hand and allowed management to prepare ahead of time AND by saying they're calling for a vote, they're indicating that they don't know if the whole membership is on board.

You do not ever want management to realize that you don't have enough people on board to strike meaningfully. This is basically your main union power, and once its gone, your union is toothless.

They went into this completely frivolously. It's appalling strategy. There are basically two outcomes: they demonstrate that they can't/aren't willing to strike, reducing the power of the WTU immensely or they do strike and put themselves in extreme legal peril, which could cause enough damage to destroy the union.

The best thing they could do right now is to stop talking about it and act like they never said anything.

Your outside analysis is pretty good. I've been watching this from the inside shocked at how it played out - one major flaw in this case (no secret here, dots are easily connected) is how much she relied on external forces, city council for one, to act on behalf of the union.All talk amounting to no action. Lots of wasted time with the council. Also creating the narrative of "safe" and making assumptions on behalf of parents/guardians, etc really early on and never considering pivoting and/or changing the messaging based on listening to the community rather than telling them what to think.

Notifying the union membership at large what the implications of a strike are, at this point, is a dereliction of duty when it could have been messaged months ago. This was never going to end well.

Yes, whoever created the "only when safe" talking point should be flogged. It means everything and nothing at once. Some on here seem to define "only when safe" to mean "no risk" which is absurd. I can no longer hear people use this phrase without rolling my eyes.

Like they could have fired almost 5,000 people

Do those 5,000 people want to lose their salaries, health insurance and years built toward (but not yet achieved) retirement? Do they really want to play chicken with their careers, particularly those who are eyeing administration as their next step? There would have been many teachers who would not have participated in the strike because, guess what, they don't agree with it. The union did a piss poor job. My child's teacher has done an amazing job.

Teachers have no retirement plan in DC. Just another slap in the face.

Guess what out of those 5k at least half would have participated and that’s enough. No one wants to risk their life. I just started IPL and already there’s 2 positive cases!! It doesn’t make me feel safe to now have to quarantine and wait for my test. It doesn’t make my wonderful kids and families feel safe either. I had quite a few parents message me because their child was riddled with anxiety asking their parents if they could FaceTime me to make sure I’m ok.

So yea teachers are amazing and no one treats us like it. It’s not just about money or benefits it’s about being respected and seen as humans, not just an expendable teaching machine. I came back because I don’t view your children as just a student, I try to give them as much love, care, and nurturing as possible.

But now I’m a bad person because DCPS hasn’t shown me it’s safe. They’ve shown me they don’t care about anything except green and that’s a stark reality check.

So the takeaways are :

- as a teacher you don’t understand something as simple as the basics of the spread of Covid
- you were very concerned for your safety - but didn’t take a few minutes to educate yourself about Covid basics
- it is safe - science and medicine both say this - but you as a teacher think both are wrong and dismiss them
- the two positive tests after one day in the classroom were not the result of an in school transmission
- parents have encouraged hysterics and done a bad job helping children - they should not be worried about you to the point they are
- I hope you made this story up for drama - otherwise it makes my already dim view of teachers even worse

Great points. I was going to make the one about the degree of concern by her students -- this is another way in which we as a society have been harming kids during this crisis, instilling this level of fear. My kids know that we do our best to avoid catching Covid (we stay home, we don't travel, we don't do indoor stuff except grocery shopping and other necessary errands), but not only do they as kids not need to worry about getting very sick, the vast majority of adults don't die of the virus, and certainly a masked exposure isn't a likely trip to the hospital. This is totally on the parents if the PP's students felt that way, it is not reasonable, nothing to be proud of, and no argument against opening classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

She is not a former WTU president. You need to do a better job at reading, teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

You assume that you think? Weird phrasing but ok.

Again, people get to look at the union’s actions and comment. It’s odd that the union seems to think people who have a stake in their decisions are creating a problem by discussing those actions. Take responsibility for your actions and communication. Hate to tell you this if this is not known to you. but the public is now involved in the union’s workings. Bc the union impacts so much more than just the union members.

Eh, I made a mistake in the phrasing.
You never cared before and you still don’t care now. It’s unlikely your kid will die or get very ill so I understand why your only issue is your child. However by that same token I think it shouldn’t be surprising teachers are now thinking af themselves first and don’t want your opinion about our safety.

My problem is not with parents it’s with DCPS. I’m perfectly willing to teach in person once my school’s issues are fixed. I’d also prefer full vaccination. My friend in CA was FULLY vaccinated weeks ago.

I care about the union now, but no I didn’t before. That’s bc the union didn’t impact my life before and it does now. Um...did I have to come out of the womb caring about the WTU for it to matter? The argument is specious.

But you’ve deflected the of conversation from “don’t discuss the union’s actions publicly!” to “you don’t care about teacher safety.” I mean, at this stage it’s just a tired ploy. But for funnies I’ll play along for a moment: I’m happy that you say you will teach when fully vaccinated. The WTU’s own communication suggests they think teacher vaccination is not enough. I would agree that in the present that other mitigation factors are necessary.....it would be pleasant for the WTU to state AND THEN STICK TO what actions will provide them with a level of non-zero risk they can work with. Instead, as in the case of the last arbitration, they say that they aren’t happy with the MOU that they signed. So I have no faith that they will ever be satisfied, and will go on threatening a strike.

You should come out of the womb caring for human life, yea.

And I didn’t say you couldn’t talk about the union, you misunderstood. I said the ‘former union president.’

I can’t answer that, I can only say what teachers have discussed as a group and what has been discussed has not always been reflected by union leadership. The point is teachers still don’t feel safe and even if they do teach in person I promise people who hold distrust, bitterness, or fear in their hearts will not be a good or as good a teacher.

At this point in the pandemic, we know SO MUCH MORE about this virus than we did at the outset, and the vaccine news is excellent across the board. I understand why there is fear, and PP makes a great point that working while fearing got your health and life does not make for a great outcome. So it's time to pivot from this ridiculous power struggle between the union and DCPS, and focus on educating the community about what we actually know about COVID, what we actually know about the vaccines, etc. Teaching in person can and should be quite safe, and the vast majority of teachers need not fear for their lives at work. So let's work on that.

[Anonymous]

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Fascinating. Do union people not realize that your actions are interpretable by others with experience? You are blaming others for commenting on their interpretation of your actions, like what you are doing is some secret? Man oh jeez you guys are bad at negotiating.

A former union president of the WTU- I assume I think it’s inappropriate.
You are not involved in the union and don’t need to know any inner workings, you just need to know teachers do not feel safe, valuable, or appreciated.

Especially when some IPL is just CARES 2.0 or there’s only 2 freaking students showing up!

You assume that you think? Weird phrasing but ok.

Again, people get to look at the union’s actions and comment. It’s odd that the union seems to think people who have a stake in their decisions are creating a problem by discussing those actions. Take responsibility for your actions and communication. Hate to tell you this if this is not known to you. but the public is now involved in the union’s workings. Bc the union impacts so much more than just the union members.

Eh, I made a mistake in the phrasing.
You never cared before and you still don’t care now. It’s unlikely your kid will die or get very ill so I understand why your only issue is your child. However by that same token I think it shouldn’t be surprising teachers are now thinking af themselves first and don’t want your opinion about our safety.

My problem is not with parents it’s with DCPS. I’m perfectly willing to teach in person once my school’s issues are fixed. I’d also prefer full vaccination. My friend in CA was FULLY vaccinated weeks ago.

I care about the union now, but no I didn’t before. That’s bc the union didn’t impact my life before and it does now. Um...did I have to come out of the womb caring about the WTU for it to matter? The argument is specious.

But you’ve deflected the of conversation from “don’t discuss the union’s actions publicly!” to “you don’t care about teacher safety.” I mean, at this stage it’s just a tired ploy. But for funnies I’ll play along for a moment: I’m happy that you say you will teach when fully vaccinated. The WTU’s own communication suggests they think teacher vaccination is not enough. I would agree that in the present that other mitigation factors are necessary.....it would be pleasant for the WTU to state AND THEN STICK TO what actions will provide them with a level of non-zero risk they can work with. Instead, as in the case of the last arbitration, they say that they aren’t happy with the MOU that they signed. So I have no faith that they will ever be satisfied, and will go on threatening a strike.

You should come out of the womb caring for human life, yea.

And I didn’t say you couldn’t talk about the union, you misunderstood. I said the ‘former union president.’

I can’t answer that, I can only say what teachers have discussed as a group and what has been discussed has not always been reflected by union leadership. The point is teachers still don’t feel safe and even if they do teach in person I promise people who hold distrust, bitterness, or fear in their hearts will not be a good or as good a teacher.

That person by the way wasn’t a teacher’s union president just another union. No reason not to share analysis.

I get you feel unsafe and unappreciated. I feel like in a normal year we parents go nuts appreciating our teachers. There are multiple gifts and a whole week of teacher appreciation. I think you deserve it but why isn’t this enough? Why is teaching the only profession that requires constant gifts and accolades? What is wrong here? It’s not the money in DC anyway, is it really such a shit job? Being with our kids all day? But if it was, why do our daycare teachers, nannies etc never complain and get far less appreciation? I am really asking, because somehow it seems like this setup is the problem - you’re always doing is a massive favor by being with our kids, we always owe you something, and now we owe you 100% safety from a disease which probably will never go away.

This. Pre-pandemic, I recall several evenings after work when I was exhausted and struggling with getting dinner ready, homework for my kids, bath time, etc., yet I still took time to bake cookies or make a huge batch of something for lunches for teacher appreciation week for my kids' childless teachers. We gave money for holiday and end of year gifts. No one has ever done any of this type of appreciation for me, nor would I ever expect it. Why isn't all this enough? It's scary to think how resentful and entitled some teachers are to constantly complain about the lack of appreciation.

Seriously, now lack of appreciation is a reason to not return to work?

[Anonymous]

New press release from WTU has them continuing to maybe possibly talk about a strike but probably that's just them trying to grasp as some sort of power:

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/wtulocal6action/pages/406/attachments/original/1612286384/2-2-21_WTU_Teachers_Want_to_Go_Back_to_School_and_Want_It_Done_Safely.pdf?1612286384