NYC firefighters, cops, city workers, must get vaccine or face upaid leave
New York City NEW YORK — will require its entire municipal workforce to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be placed on unpaid leave, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, giving an ultimatum to public employees, including police officers and firefighters who have refused the shots and ensuring a fight with some unions representing them.
The Democrat gave approx- imately 46,000 unvaccinated city employees until Nov. 1 to get their first vaccine dose, and he offered an incentive: City workers who get a shot by Oct. 29 at a city-run vaccination site will get an extra $500 in their paycheck.
“My job as your mayor is to keep this city safe, keep this city healthy. And vaccination is the way,” he said.
Unions representing some city employees immediately castigated the mandates as an unfair invasion of personal privacy. New York City’s larg- est police union, the Police Benevolent Association, said getting vaccinated is a “per- sonal medical decision” offi- cers should make in consulta
tion with their doctors.
“Now that the city has moved to unilaterally impose a mandate, we will proceed with legal action to protect our members’ rights,” said its president, Pat Lynch.
With the expanded man- date, over 300,000 city employees will need to be vaccinated, roughly 160,000 more than had previously been covered by vaccination rules.
De Blasio had been weigh- ing a vaccine mandate for the police and fire departments and other city agencies for several weeks.
His announcement came amid new uproar over NYPD officers defying even simple measures, like wearing face masks. On Monday, two police officers were seen on video shoving a man out of a Manhattan subway station when he confronted them for flouting rules requiring they wear masks.
About 69% of the NYPD’s workforce is vaccinated, compared with 77.4% of adult New Yorkers who have been fully vaccinated. The NYPD has about 34,500 uniformed personnel and about 17,700 peo- ple in non-uniformed support positions.
More than 60 NYPD employees have died of COVID-19. The fire department lost 16 work- ers to the virus.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, who had COVID- 19 in January, and Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro have said they support a vaccine mandate.
New York City’s mandate comes as other cities are starting to punish — and even fire — first responders.
In Seattle, six police offi- cers and 11 firefighters are slated for termination after that city’s vaccine mandate took effect Monday.
In Massachusetts, a police union said at least 150 state troopers are resigning over that state’s mandate. In Wash- ington, 127 state troopers have been fired for defying a vaccine mandate and another 32 have resigned or retired rather than getting vaccinated.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot last week accused the city’s police union pres- ident of trying to “induce an insurrection” by encour- aging officers to defy that requirement — even after the union’s former president died of COVID-19. The dispute is now in court.