Tracker: Open Letter Campaign Calls for Worker Reinstatement and Compensation
Workers who lost jobs under New York's C19 vaccine mandates are calling on officials to reinstate and compensate them, and demanding transparency. Here's a rundown of the open letters and responses.
Since last fall, New York workers who were fired and pushed out of their jobs in other ways for refusing to comply with the widespread COVID-19 vaccine mandates that were rolled out in 2021 have been speaking directly to the powers that be in a letter-writing campaign.
The first letter, to the incoming Trump administration, was sent out in November 2024, and that was followed by letters to legislators at every level of government and Governor Kathy Hochul.
The letters have been signed by hundreds of New Yorkers who lost their jobs, coming together as New York Workers for Choice. Their letters have been published by the Teachers for Choice Substack (with commentary by Michael Kane, who was fired under the New York City DOE mandate), emailed to officials, and promoted on social media. Some have been hand-delivered to officials’ offices.
Individuals and even politicians have joined the letter-writing effort too, with New York Congressman Nick Langworthy publishing an open letter to NYC Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos to ask for transparency on the issue of problem codes and Josh Stylman calling on City Council Member Lincoln Restler to have a public conversation about reinstatement.
The purpose of this tracker is to provide an overview of the letter campaign and keep track of any responses from officials.
These are the letters included below:
Letter to U.S. President-Elect Trump and VP-Elect Vance
An Open Letter to Councilman Lincoln Restler
Congressional Letter to NYC Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos
Letter from Workers for Choice to New York City Council Members
Letter from Workers for Choice to New York State Legislators
Letter from Workers for Choice to U.S. Congress Members
Letter from Workers for Choice to U.S. House Oversight Committee Members
Letter from Workers for Choice to President Trump
Letter from Workers for Choice to New York Governor Kathy Hochul
Letter from New York Educators and Other Workers to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, NYC Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, and UFT President Michael Mulgrew
Letter from New York Workers for Choice to United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon
Follow-Up Letter from New York Workers for Choice to New York State Legislature
The Letters
Here’s a rundown of open letters calling for reinstatement and transparency, ordered by date. I’ll be updating this article as responses are received. If you know of any I’ve missed, please let me know in the comments.
Letter to U.S. President-Elect Trump and VP-Elect Vance
Date: November 20, 2024
Where it has been published: On the Teachers for Choice Substack
Written by: Aura Moody and Diane Pagen
Signed by: Over 250 New York City workers
Asks for: “[W]e respectfully ask that you please help City workers, members of the military and all other citizens who were unlawfully forced out and fired as a result of the vaccine mandate.”
Response: Aura Moody received this response on November 26, 2024:
Action taken: President Trump signed Executive Order 14184 reinstating service members discharged under the military's COVID-19 vaccination mandate on January 27, 2025. No action has been taken with regard to New York City workers.
An Open Letter to Councilman Lincoln Restler
Date: November 23, 2024
Written and published by:
Asks for: A public conversation with Councilman Restler about reinstatement and the mandates, which Restler supported.
Response: None reported.
Congressional Letter to NYC Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos
Date: December 2, 2024
Where it has been published: in a press release by Congressman Nick Langworthy and on X
Written by: Congressman Nick Langworthy
Signed by: U.S. Representatives Nick Langworthy, Nick LaLota, Michael Lawler, Claudia Tenney, Anthony D’Esposito, and Andrew Garbarino
Asks for: Calls for the chancellor to answer eight questions about the Department of Education’s use of problem codes in the personnel files of unvaccinated workers. The letter is a follow-up to a similar letter Langworthy sent to the previous chancellor, David Banks, in June 2023. That first letter did not receive a response.
Response: None reported.
Letter from Workers for Choice to New York City Council
Date: December 18, 2024
Where it has been published: On the Teachers for Choice Substack
Written by: Aura Moody and Diane Pagen
Signed by: Over 280 New York City workers
Asks for: “[W]e respectfully demand that the New York State Legislature and New York City Council help us return to work.” Asks for Resolution 5 and state legislation to be passed to reinstate workers, and for appeals against successful worker lawsuits to be dropped.
Response: Members of the City Council’s Common Sense Caucus have backed reinstatement, with some actively working to achieve it. No response has been received from other Council members.
Letter from Workers for Choice to New York State Legislators
Date: December 30, 2024
Where it has been published: On the Teachers for Choice Substack
Written by: Aura Moody and Diane Pagen
Signed by: Over 300 New York City workers
Asks for: “[W]e are asking you to co-sponsor the LET US WORK Bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Jaime Williams.” The bill would reinstate New York City workers who lost jobs under the mandates.
Responses: None
Letter from Workers for Choice to U.S. Congress Members
Date: January 16, 2025
Written by: Aura Moody and Diane Pagen
Signed by: Over 300 New York City workers
Asks for: “[W]e respectfully demand that the United States Congress help us to get reinstated. . . . Congress should consider using the power of the purse to ensure that the State and City of New York comply with the law, if deemed necessary. We also ask for Congressional hearings, where the perpetrators of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, in both public and private sectors, have to explain their motives and actions and be held accountable . . .”
Response: Aura Moody received acknowledgments via email from the offices of four members of the House.
Diane Pagen talks about the letter after delivering it to Congressional offices in an interview in this report:
Letter from Workers for Choice to U.S. House Oversight Committee Members
Date: February 11, 2025
Written by: Aura Moody and Diane Pagen
Signed by: Over 300 New York City workers
Asks for: “We are seeking the commensurate reinstatement and compensation that was afforded to the similarly-situated United States military members by President Donald Trump via Executive Order on January 27, 2025.”
Response: None reported.
Letter from Workers for Choice to President Trump
Date: February 21, 2025
Where it has been published: On the Teachers for Choice Substack
Written by: Aura Moody and Diane Pagen
Signed by: Over 400 New York City workers
Asks for: “You should consider using the power of the purse to help the unvaccinated workers get reinstated and the businesses restored, the same way you have ordered states to stop COVID-19 vaccine mandates, DEI, transgenderism and congestion pricing, among other Executive Orders. . . . We are looking forward to your intervention on our urgent appeal . . .”
Response: No response reported.
Letter from Workers for Choice to New York Governor Kathy Hochul
Date: March 7, 2025
Where it has been published: On the Teachers for Choice Substack
Written by: Aura Moody and Diane Pagen
Signed by: Over 450 New York workers
Asks for: “NYC and NYS workers are rightfully stunned this week by your maudlin reception for fired federal workers, your rush to meet with them and your offer to hire all of them. We seek an explanation from you as to why those workers are worthy of your time and attention while those abused, defamed and fired in your own state are not.”
Response:
Auto-reply acknowledging receipt when sent to the governor’s email.
Assistant Attorney General Donya Fernandez acknowledged receipt of the letter by the Labor Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office, and requested some additional information.
Labor Bureau Chief Karen Cacace replied to the letter, saying in an April 15 email to Aura Moody that “the New York State Office of the Attorney General has represented New York State concerning the issues you raised in your complaint. As a result, our office is unable to investigate the issues you have raised.”
Aura Moody replied: “Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the NYS Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), please provide us with a copy of the reports/findings showing that the New York State Office of the Attorney General represented New York State concerning the issues we raised in our complaint.”
Labor Bureau Chief Karen Cacace replied on April 23 that the bureau’s FOIL office is processing the request.
On May 22, Aura Moody received a FOIL response containing court documents for a lawsuit (Dr. A et al. v. Hochul et al.) filed in 2021 by a group of physicians against the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers. New York State Attorney General Letitia James was a defendant in that case, and the attorney general’s office represented her. Health care workers who were subject to the state mandate were among the workers who signed the letter to Kathy Hochul.
Press coverage:
Submitted to: This letter was submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on June 12, 2025, with the following requests:
Dear members of the House Oversight Committee:
Today, June 12, 2025, the governors of sanctuary states and cities are scheduled to testify before you about their policies and spending on illegal immigration, among other issues. As American citizens who have been impacted by the sanctuary policies, we implore the House Oversight Committee to ask New York Governor Kathy Hochul about the impact of her sanctuary state policies in regards to the tens of thousands of New York workers and business owners for declining to submit to an unconstitutional COVID-19 vaccine mandate that was never voted on by any legislative body nor approved by the union membership via the appropriate collective bargaining process.
It is of paramount importance to highlight that while unvaccinated New Yorkers continue to struggle to make a living and pay their bills, New York politicians such as former Governor Andrew Cuomo, Governor Kathy Hochul, former Mayor Bill de Blasio and Mayor Eric Adams have allocated billions of the taxpayers' money to support illegal aliens, including COVID-19 funds.
Attached please find the Open Letter sent to Governor Kathy Hochul by New York Workers for Choice on March 7, 2025, to wit, we have not received a response. We are looking forward to hearing that the firings and displacements of tens of thousands of New Yorkers are addressed during your hearing.
Sincerely,
Aura Moody, on behalf of New York Workers for Choice
Dear Members of the Oversight Committee,
I am a NYer who was unlawfully terminated and publicly insulted by the Governor of my state for declining the Covid shot. Gov Hochul ran a campaign of terrorizing valuable NY workers into taking this shot, and those of us who did not comply had our careers ended by this reckless woman who you will be questioning under oath. Please ask her about her mass firings (which the Mayor of NYC conspired with her on). They wiped out income and savings of tens of thousands of workers and coerced the rest into taking the shot under threat of financial ruin. They also conspired to issue blanket denials so that no one they fired could get Unemployment. It is scandalous.
We the unvaccinated workers of NYS are all still struggling.
Diane Pagen, LMSW
Brooklyn
Letter from New York Educators and Other Workers to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, NYC Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, and UFT President Michael Mulgrew
Date: April 14, 2025
Where it has been published: On the Teachers for Choice Substack
Written by: Aura Moody and Diane Pagen
Signed by: Over 500 New York educators and other workers
Asks for: “We need to bring every qualified professional back to work in our city immediately . . . Both public and private sector employees across New York state continue to demand to be reinstated.”
Response: No response reported.
Letter from New York Workers for Choice to United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon
Date: May 2, 2025
Where it has been published: On the Teachers for Choice Substack
Written by: Aura Moody, Diane Pagen, and Michael Kane
Signed by: Over 510 New York workers
Asks for: “Given that our attempts to seek administrative remedy have been unsuccessful, we respectfully ask that the Trump administration and the United States Department of Justice intervene by investigating what really happened in New York that led to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and its impact on the civil and labor rights of so many people. We hope that the results of such an investigation would lead to the reinstatement of all unlawfully terminated or displaced workers and business owners.”
Response: No response reported.
Press coverage:
Follow-Up Letter from New York Workers for Choice to New York State Legislature
Date: May 13, 2025
Where it has been published: On the Teachers for Choice Substack
Written by: Aura Moody, Diane Pagen, and Michael Kane
Signed by: Over 635 New York workers
Asks for: “This is a follow-up to the letter New York Workers for Choice sent to ALL MEMBERS of the New York State Legislature on December 30, 2024, to wit, we have not received a response. In our letter, we asked that you help with the reinstatement of thousands of unlawfully terminated or displaced New York workers who were forced out of their careers and businesses under the pretext of the COVID-19 vaccine mandates . . . We expect an official response to this letter.”
Response: No response reported.
it is SO depressing to see you all still without jobs!!