The president of a leading U.S. teachers union came out in support of vaccine mandates for teachers on Sunday.
“As a matter of personal conscience, we need to be working with employers on vaccine mandates,” Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The AFT represents 1.7 million members across the country and is the second-largest teachers union, after the National Education Association. Support from the union’s leadership could make it easier to implement requirements that teachers be vaccinated if they’re going to teach in-person.
The announcement caps an evolution on the mandate issue for Weingarten. Consistent with her union’s official position, Weingarten had previously said vaccines were the most effective way to deal with the virus, and that all teachers should be urged to get them, but they should not be required to.
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