AFT backs strikes as ‘last resort’ in school reopening plans
One of the nation’s largest teachers unions is authorizing its members to strike if their schools plan to reopen without proper safety measures in the middle of the pandemic.
The American Federation of Teachers, which represents 1.7 million school employees, issued a resolution Tuesday saying it will support any local chapter that decides to strike over reopening plans.
The union is also offering local chapters access to its financial and legal resources as they navigate a return to the classroom. Union officials said they will provide legal support, communications support and staffing to local chapters that vote to strike.
Although the measure says strikes should be considered only as a “last resort,” it lists conditions the organization wants met for schools to reopen. It says buildings should reopen only in areas with lower virus rates, and only if schools require masks, update ventilation systems and make changes to space students apart.
The union’s president blasted President Donald Trump for ordering schools to reopen even as the virus continues to surge.
Randi Weingarten called Trump’s response “chaotic and catastrophic.”
“We will fight on all fronts for the safety of our students and their educators,” she said. “But if authorities don’t protect the safety and health of those we represent and those we serve, as our executive council voted last week, nothing is off the table.”
The union’s executive council approved the resolution Friday but announced it at the group’s convention, which is being hosted online.
The nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, separately said its members will do “whatever it takes” to protect students.
“Nobody wants to see students back in the classroom more than educators, but when it comes to their safety, we’re not ready to take any options off the table,” the group’s president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, said in a statement.
For weeks, Trump has pressed for a full reopening of the nation’s schools. Last week he acknowledged that some schools may need to delay a return to in-person instruction, but he’s still asking Congress to withhold future virus relief to schools that fail to reopen.