Some Fear Mandate of 30,000 Unvaccinated Uniformed Workers will Leave Large Gaps in Service

By Yehudit Garmaise

      Since the city’s Oct. 4 mandate for the city’s teachers and other school workers to get their shots, 3500 Department of Education (DOE) workers of have stepped up to get vaccinated, so they could return to work, after being put on paid leave. After today’s announcement that the city’s police officers, firefighters, and sanitation workers are similarly mandated, some fear that that they will not be so easily persuaded to get their shots: potentially leaving the city without large chunks of those workers.

     In an additional gesture to show extra thanks and gratitude to the city’s first-responders and frontline workers, Mayor de Blasio has also upped, for municipal workers, his usual $100 incentive to $500 for municipal workers, and many are wondering whether that will do the trick. 

     If all 160,500 get vaccinated in the next few days and receive the $500 incentives, the bill for the city amount to $23 million dollars.

     While 96% of the DOE’s workers and 95% of the city’s Health + Hospitals workers are now vaccinated, only 71% of the city’s 160,500 frontline workers have received one vaccine dose: despite having been prioritized as among the first eligible 10 months ago.

     Not only are the city’s municipal workers particularly vaccine-resistant, but one reporter noted that videos are going viral on Twitter of police officers not where masks on New York City subways, where masks are still required. 

     “If you are going to be in law enforcement, you have to participate in following the law,” said the mayor, who had seen one of the videos of unmasked NYPD officers on the subway and said that investigations and disciplines are on the way.

     Considering that many police officers are not wearing masks where required, many worry that those 30% of unvaccinated police officers, firefighters, and other city workers will continue to refuse to get their shots, and the city will be faced with thousands of vacancies in those essential positions, one reporter asked the mayor today.

     The mayor first said that he felt that city workers’ commitment to helping others and their respect for a strong chain of command would encourage them to honor the city’s vaccine mandate.

     “But also,” the mayor said practically: “They are there for a paycheck. They work in noble professions, but they want to get paid, and they want to accrue time for their pensions that they will get later on.

    “Folks are not going to give that up, by and large.

     “The vast people in public service need that paycheck, they are not going to go without it.”

     In the event that large numbers of city workers do not choose to get vaccinated and return to work, the mayor said, “We obviously have contingencies in place for any gaps that we experience.

     “But our uniformed agency leadership say very strongly that they will be able to handle any scenario.”

    When the mayor was pressed further to describe his “contingency plans,” for a potential of 30,000 police officers, firefighters, and sanitation workers who may simply choose not to get vaccinated and therefore not to come back to work, he first emphasized that vaccine mandates have been backed up by many courts.

     “A lot of people might get vaccinated grudgingly to return to work,” said the mayor.

     As the city waits for its workers to return, Mayor de Blasio said that, when necessary, to fill the staffing gaps, the city “will use overtime, do redeployments, and re-adjust the workforce.

     “We feel confident that even if there is a temporary dynamic of some people not being ready right away, we are going to find our way through it.”

(Photo Don Pollard// Office of Formor Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)