#Teachers union prepared to fight if NYC forces schools to reopen

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President Michael Mulgrew of the United Federation of Teachers
Daniel William McKnight

Union officials are prepared to fight back if they think the reopening of Big Apple schools is being done unsafely, union boss Michael Mulgrew said Tuesday.

“All I am going to say on this call is that I am preparing for what to do if they do that,” the UFT chief said during an afternoon town hall Tuesday by phone, according to a Department of Education source who heard the remarks.

They’re prepared to take court action, protest and other organizing actions but aren’t currently discussing a strike, union sources told The Post Wednesday.

Already 4% of teachers, 3,000 total, have filed for medical accommodations so they don’t have to return to class but that number is expected to get much higher, Mulgrew said.

“It will be many more,” he told union members, adding no requests have been denied.

One thing’s for sure: remote learning is here to stay and will be at least 60% of instruction even if kids return to school, Mulgrew said.

“If we do not open, we are 100% remote. All instruction will be done remotely. If we do open, a minimum of 60% will be done remotely,” the union chief said.

“The remote instruction really needs to be built out because that is the majority of instruction that will be done next year no matter what,” he went on, adding schools are “very behind on the instruction side.”

Mulgrew said if he was asked Tuesday about whether or not schools will reopen, his answer would be “no” but if the DOE provides sufficient money for safety equipment and puts adequate reopening plans into place then he could see kids returning to class.

He said a decision on reopening won’t come until late August or the first week of September, echoing comments Mayor Bill de Blasio made Wednesday morning on MSNBC.

Mulgrew added the onus is on City Hall to provide for childcare for parents whose kids will be at home while they work.

“We are not childcare, we are educators. We know we need good childcare, but it isn’t our responsibility,” Mulgrew said during the call.

The union boss said City Hall and DOE are aware a reopening cannot happen until a nurse is in every school and he’s currently “laser focused” on airflow in classrooms because proper circulation is necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“There are certain schools with a lack of ventilation and airflow that will not be able to open. We are testing all the schools now,” Mulgrew said.

During the call, he questioned City Hall’s reliance on a survey of city parents asking how they feel about reopening. De Blasio has cited the results, saying 75% of parents want kids to return to class but Mulgrew said the DOE’s presentation of the survey’s findings wasn’t accurate. A closer read of the poll, which had 400,000 respondents, showed only 25% are ready to send their kids back.

An equal amount of respondents don’t want to send their kids back and a total of half “have a lot of questions,” Mulgrew said.

To prepare teachers for what’s to come in the event of a reopening, Mulgrew spoke of a “liquid COVID cleaner” that kills the virus and will be sprayed everywhere and said teachers will be trained on the proper use of personal protective equipment “as if we are in a hospital setting.”