Dear Members of Local 1315, The state’s vaccine rollout has been troubled from the start. To date, the state has no plan for public school employees. With each new group added to the priority list, school employees have been pushed further down, despite the CDC recommending – yet again – that school employees be included higher up with other essential workers, as most states are doing. Public higher education employees are still listed in Phase 3, even though many are working with students in person and 32 other states include them with school staff. We have a union-backed vaccination plan to facilitate the local delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to public school employees, preK through college, as quickly as possible and without disrupting public access to vaccine appointments. Along with the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts and unions representing public school employees we are asking the Commonwealth to allocate enough vaccine for school employees to start receiving shots via a pilot program in up to 20 school districts that have high COVID-19 transmission rates. The program would then expand to the rest of the districts across the state as soon as possible after the pilot ends. This program should also include public higher education employees and municipal librarians who are working with students and the public in person at the same time as preK-through-12 school employees.
[CLICK HERE - TAKE ACTION NOW] Please urge Governor Charlie Baker and Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders to take immediate action to make our schools safer for students, families and communities, along with Massachusetts school employees and librarians!
Sincerely, Sandi Amburn, President Pittsfield Federation of School Employees
This is a joint effort of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, the Boston Teachers Union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Service Employees International Union Local 888, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Council 93, National Association of Government Employees, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades DC35, LiUNA-Massachusetts & Northern New England Laborers’ District Council, and the United Steelworkers. |
