Massport, T gird as vax deadline nears
The MBTA and Massport are also adopting Gov. Charlie Baker’s Sunday vaccine mandate deadline, but contingency plans appear fluid.
“The MBTA is working hard to protect the health and safety of its riders and employees while providing the levels of service necessary to satisfy demand,” an MBTA spokesperson said in a statement about its employees’ ability to meet vaccination deadlines.
The spokesperson would not divulge the progress the agency, which includes over 6,000 bus and train drivers, Commuter Rail workers and other employees, is making toward the vaccination deadline, but said that “employees not vaccinated or approved for an exemption as of October 17 will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”
The spokesperson said he would share the number of employees who complied with the mandate after the deadline hits. In Baker’s policy, there is no regular testing option instead of getting the jab.
A spokesperson from the MBTA workers union did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Massport would not share how many of the over 1,400 Massport employees were fully vaccinated, but also will share that data after the deadline passes.
Although the spokesperson acknowledged that Massport, which operates Logan Airport and port, does have a contingency plan should there be a wave of layoffs in the wake of the deadline, the agency “(does) not anticipate a significant employee shortage,” the spokesperson said.
The Massport spokesperson would not confirm whether contractors were included in the vaccine mandate.
Earlier this week, Baker announced that he was deploying the National Guard to assist with staffing shortages wrought by vaccine mandate compliance at the Department of Correction, as well as to help with COVID-19 testing in schools.
The City of Boston has 637 workers out of compliance with the vaccine mandate, with the next steps in enforcement still vague.
As for the State Police, a group of troopers and commanders have hired a Boston law firm as “hundreds” in the agency face being fired for not taking the coronavirus vaccine, the Herald first reported over the weekend.
A source told the Herald more than 300 troopers, sergeants, lieutenants, detective lieutenants, captains and staff are in that group and some have already caught COVID, giving them the antibodies. But that won’t help them come Oct. 17 when the vaccine mandate goes on the books.