New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's vaccine mandate for city workers took effect on Monday, forcing 9,000 employees on unpaid leave, while another 12,000 have put in for a religious or medical exemption.
The mandate has already had disastrous consequences, with trash piling high on city streets last week over the mandate's impact on sanitation workers.
NYC is piling up with trash as the deadline to get vaccinated was last Friday Oct 29th. As of Thursday Oct 28th, just 67% of sanitation workers were vaccinated: pic.twitter.com/HBVBZtOxUZ
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) November 1, 2021
Twenty-six FDNY firehouse companies were also out of service on Saturday over staffing shortages because of the mandate, the New York Post reported. In defiance, thousands of FDNY personnel have been calling in "sick" to keep their pay while the mandate takes effect, which the Democratic mayor called "not acceptable."
"People get really troubled really quick when people don't show up to do their job if they're not really sick, and we have every reason to believe there's a lot of people out there claiming to be sick when they're not. It's not acceptable. Do the right thing. Come to work, protect people, as you took an oath to do," de Blasio said. "When people do this kind of thing there are consequences. This decision was made for the health and welfare of all New Yorkers. It's time to recognize this is the law. Get back to New York protecting the people of New York City."
Unions representing FDNY workers, the agency with one of the lowest vaccination rates in the city, held a news conference early Monday to address the deadline.
"All we were asking for is some extra time," said FDNY Fire Officers Association President Jim McCarthy, adding that members had nine days to make the decision.
Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro claimed the mandate was purely a political move by the mayor.
"This is not a city in crisis. Right now COVID rates are plummeting. Why this is being forced on us, on everybody, we believe this is a political thing," he said.
Ansbro announced Sunday that 2,000 firefighters called out sick on Sunday because they were "feeling flu-like symptoms because that’s what the shot does to people." FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro confirmed the huge number of medical leave but said they were in an apparent protest of the city's vaccine mandate.
Sources told NBC New York that more than half of firefighters who called in sick didn’t recently get vaccinated.
“Irresponsible bogus sick leave by some of our members is creating a danger for New Yorkers and their fellow Firefighters. They need to return to work or risk the consequences of their actions," [FDNY Commissioner Daniel] Nigro said over the weekend. (NBC New York)
On Monday, Nigro also pushed back on reports that firehouses were shuttered in each of the boroughs, noting that "each time it sees a company go out of service, resources are moved to get that company back in service," according to NBC New York.
Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis said the commissioner is playing "fast and loose" with the term firehouse.
What Nigro said "may be accurate, however, there are dozens of companies within those firehouses, either engine companies or ladder companies that are not operating and therefore these firehouses are working at half capacity," the Republican congresswoman said, "and that will have an impact on public safety."
Thousands of #FDNY firefighters, #NYPD officers and sanitation workers face termination, dozens of fire companies are not operating and hundreds of our experienced first responders filed for retirement. #NYC is less safe & clean because of de Blasio’s overreaching mandates. pic.twitter.com/ldnl3vXwOR
— Nicole Malliotakis (@NMalliotakis) November 1, 2021
