For them, it is a protest against the vaccination obligation that they judge “inadmissible“. An abnormally high number of firefighters in New York have asked to be placed on sick leave in recent days. For the moment, this does not disrupt the operation of the fire stations.
A week ago, firefighters were strongly represented during a demonstration against the obligation to vaccinate employees of the city of New York, which had brought together several thousand people.
9,000 protesting employees
“Sick leave has increased and we know it’s a protest against this rule, it’s obvious”, New York Fire Chief Daniel Nigro told a town hall press briefing on the first day that the city’s 378,000 or so municipal workers risk having their pay suspended if they are not vaccinated.
According to Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, 9,000 employees were in this situation, while 12,000 requested a medical or religious exemption.
But sick leave, which concerned 2,300 firefighters on Monday (out of a total of 17,000 members) according to their chief, is a way of circumventing the sanction on the pay slip, he explained. “In general 200 people come to the medical office every day, last week there were 700 a day. The majority of them are not vaccinated. This is totally unacceptable“, he added, while ensuring that“no barracks are closed”.
Understaffed units
For its part, the main union of New York firefighters posted photos of firefighters on Twitter “sent home” because they did not respect the vaccination obligation. “There are units that are understaffed. This understaffing could end immediately if firefighters stop being sick when they are not.“, conceded Daniel Nigro.
The vaccination rate reached 80% on Sunday among the city’s 17,000 firefighters, against 60% on October 19, one of the lowest figures among the city’s services (96% in education, 84% in the police).
“We don’t see any disruptions in city services”, congratulated Bill de Blasio, who, however, had deemed “unacceptable” a few days ago the mounds of rubbish piled up on the sidewalks in some neighborhoods, and which had been interpreted as a sign of protest from the garbage collectors.
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