Mayor not budging from Oct. 15 vaccine mandate
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday her Oct. 15 deadline for all city employees to get the coronavirus vaccine is hard and fast and she’s not moving it just because police unions are deadset against the mandate.
“The deadline is not gonna be pushed back. I can tell you that with 100% certainty,” the mayor said.
“October 15 is the deadline . ... All through the pandemic, I heard from union after union about the concerns of their members. … The only way we can actually make good on the promise of making the workplace safe is by getting people vaccinated.”
Lightfoot said she has had “great conversations with most unions.” But the city has gotten “nowhere” with the Fraternal Order of Police or other unions representing sergeants, lieutenants and captains.
Lightfoot noted she was just at police headquarters a few days ago retiring the police stars of four Chicago Police officers who died of COVID-19.
The FOP vice president gave a great speech on that day about the need to “come together and support” the families of those four fallen officers, she said.
“The best way that we can support these families is by getting vaccinated. What is the No. 1 cause of death amongst first-responders? COVID-19,” Lightfoot said.
FOP chief John Catanzara could not be reached for comment.
Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter said his member unions “don’t have an agreement on anything right now” when it comes to the vaccine mandate.
“We’re still in discussions with them . ... When you do a policy like this, it raises a lot of different things you have to address, including leave policy, accommodations. Also, the threshold question around testing alternatives. There’s a number of things we’ve been working through.”
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