Two anti-vax Boston teachers sue their own union over vaccination agreement with city

Two Boston teachers who belong to the anti-vax group that holds morning protests outside Mayor Wu's house today sued the Boston Teachers Union for a signing an agreement with the Wu administration that could force unvaccinated teachers to dip into accumulated sick leave to keep getting paid while on leave until citywide coronavirus numbers dip below city benchmarks.

In their suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Paula Taylor and John Daley say their union violated its own bylaws by presenting members a copy of the "memorandum of agreement" at a Feb. 9 union meeting without the 15 days notice required for any collective-bargaining agreements that include "substantial departures" from the union's existing contract. They are asking a judge to overturn the agreement, at least pending a vote with 15 days notice.

In addition to belonging to the BTU, Taylor and Daley are members of Boston First Responders United, a group of first responders and teachers who claim their rights to "bodily autonomy" mean trump city public-health efforts and that they should be allowed to refuse vaccinations and keep their jobs.

Under the memorandum, BPS could put any teachers who refuse to get shots on unpaid leave - although they could then draw down accumulated leave - as long as Boston is in a "red zone" of Covid-19 numbers, including ICU occupancy of more than 95%, hospital occupancy of more than daily Covid-19 cases and a daily test positivity rate above 5%. Once the numbers go well below those, unvaccinated teachers could return to the classroom as long as they test negative on twice-weekly tests. The union says this could affect more than 380 teachers.

As of last week, the ICU number was below that threshold, but overall hospital occupancy and test positivity rates were higher, the Boston Public Health Commission said Friday.