NEA Teachers Union Sued By Barrington (RI) Teachers Fired For Refusing Covid Vax, Allege Union Complicit
Teachers’ Lawyer Greg Piccirilli: “The union’s actions were a complete abdication of their legal obligation to vigorously defend these teachers from termination.”
The three Barrington, Rhode Island school teachers fired by their school district for refusing the Covid vaccine have sued their teachers union for failing to represent them in the two-year ordeal.
The lawsuit filed today is the “latest shoe to drop,” says Greg Piccirilli, the lawyer who respresents them because their teachers union wouldn’t.
They are probably better off without them anyway. Piccirrili recently won a massive settlement—more than they could have hoped for had they gone to trial—including full reinstatement and back pay.
We’ve covered the teachers’ travails from the very beginning:
- Total Vindication: Full Reinstatement and Back Pay For Three Barrington (RI) Teachers Fired For Refusing Covid Vax
- “Imagine How it Feels to be One of Only Three Educators out of 21,000 in the State of Rhode Island to Lose Your Job Over This Vaccine”
- Court: Barrington (RI) School Committee Liable For Attorney’s Fees Of Teachers Fired Over Covid Vax Mandate
- Vaccine Mandate That Led To Firing Of Three Barrington (RI) Teachers Lacked Necessary Public Notice, Court Rules
- “Just Devastating” – Three Teachers Who Sought Religious Exemption From Covid Vaccine Fired In Barrington (RI)
Each of the three teachers—Brittany DiOrio, Stephanie Hines, and Kerri Thurber—had requested a religious exemption from taking the Barrington school district’s mandatory Covid vaccine at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. The district denied their requests, suspended them without pay, and ultimately fired them effective January 1st of 2022.
But when the teachers turned to their union to represent them, they were given an ultimatum instead: get vaxxed or get fired.
Pat Ford of Coalition Radio asked the union to comment on the filing today but was turned down — and turned out:
Today’s complaint, filed in Rhode Island Suprerior Court, alleges that the teachers union conspired with the school committee to force them into compliance or leave.
The complaint also alleges religious discrimination.
Piccirilli explains:
The union’s action made the committee feel empowered to go forward with termination because the district would not represent these teachers. In fact, at the pre-termination hearing on October 28, 2021, the union lawyer specifically said that the union felt that the committee had the power to adopt a vaccine mandate unilaterally without negotiating, and without any religious exemption.
The union’s actions were a complete abdication of their legal obligation to vigorously defend these teachers from termination, and also was evidence of discrimination because they refused to consider these teachers’ religious objection to the vaccine.
Today’s complaint holds the teachers union to account. Piccirilli says they hope to expose the union’s complicity in having its own members fired over an unlawful mandate.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Any day the NEA is sued is a good day. Hope they win.
And whose bidding was the NEA doing? That’s right, their paymaster the Democrat party!
Don’t you wonder what the union’s response would be if the teachers were not white?
The union won’t represent them but will they still be required to be union members and pay union dues?
Forced dues are unconstitutional (Janus v AFSCME), but teachers’ unions in RI appear to have been illegally collecting them.
https://rifreedom.org/2022/03/have-teacher-unions-in-rhode-island-been-unlawfully-collecting-union-dues-for-years/
Unions already can’t represent the interests of all the workers. At best it’s one group over another, e.g. senior members vs. newcomers. So it might be normal for vax vs. antivax as well.
Actually no…the Union SHOULD be representing its members because its not the Union that is in the stand here, it is the teachers. And as the teachers are Union members its the teachers RIGHT to be protected by their Union.
The fact THEIR Union did not stand up for them tells you all you need to know about who Unions are really working for (hint, it aint for the betterment and welfare of Union members).
Coalition Radio delivering the goods again!!
The unions are useless except for taking dues and recommending Democrats for office.
They do nothing else.
I had a case with multiple instances of arbitrary and capricious actions by a department chair, and, after months of waiting, said they weren’t going to take it. This was after they were seemingly outraged at my presentation to the union chapter of state college workers.
In a word, they suck.
Close, but unions are actually worse than useless in the workplace.
They protect the worst of the worst, and fight to prevent them being fired. Usually successfully, and the fact that employers know they will do this results in them choosing not to fire employees that they really need to get rid of in the first place. I work for a power company, and this results in linemen that are a hazard to themselves and others retaining their jobs – until someone actually gets seriously injured or killed because of their mistakes.
They also prevent employer from rewarding their best workers – everyone in a job classification gets paid the same, no individual bonuses, etc, and they push to have promotions based on seniority rather than performance. So, the best workers get held back – and often leave for other employment in a non-union company.
The NEARI teachers union always intended to discriminate against any teacher who didn’t roll up their sleeve.
They are on video record as comparing vaccination program to 9/11, and telling their members up “Step Up, and Suck It Up.” Only contact them if you have a med exemption. Apparently, the Bible was believed to be a source of misinformation?
https://twitter.com/laurieinri/status/1661868237594718208?s=20
Outstanding!!
Ban public sector unions.
The state workers’ union here in Washington State was no better. It “negotiated” with Gov. Inslee, resulting in complete surrender on the matter of mandatory vaxxing, while getting in return some small benefit for the workers. But, of course, those small benefits were delivered only to those employees who weren’t fired for having refused the vaxxes and whose religious exemptions were denied. The union agreed with Inslee to reward the compliant and to punish the non-compliant. (I filed a “conscientious objection” as my exemption request, and, shockingly, it was approved. I made it clear in my objection that I believed requiring a “religious” exemption established an unconstitutional religious test for state employment. I have to wonder if that got their attention.)
Imagine if union attorneys across the country had dug their heels in and said “Mandating the use of unapproved medical products is unlawful.” Imagine the unions actually defending their members’ rights! (Granted, I have quite an imagination.)
The covid/Lockdown regime is worse than the 1917 Russian Bolshevik revolution and the Cultural Marxists who decimated that nation under Lenin. Russia never recovered especially after Stalin’s rule of terror.
“1. Identify a respected institution.
2. kill it.
3. gut it.
4. wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.
#lefties”
They’ve been doing this so long, they’ve forgotten: if you want the prerogatives of an institution, you have to do the work of that institution. First they’ll have to get past the notion that calling something a thing, doesn’t make it that thing. (Like the ACLU hasn’t been about any of that for a very long time, now.)