New York followed the lead of other major American cities in making compulsory vaccination for firefighters, police and other municipal jobs this Wednesday, October 20. This decision is already causing a stir among the unions.
After teachers and caregivers, all the trades of some 160,000 employees New York City Municipalities will therefore be affected by a strict vaccine obligation, from November 1, from police to firefighters through garbage collectors.
Henry Garrido, director of the municipal employees’ union, called on all its members to be vaccinated, at the same time asking the city of “sit down with us” to negotiate. But the boss of the city’s main police union, Patrick Lynch, immediately promised tosue the mayor’s decision Democrat Bill de Blasio, “to protect the freedoms of our members,” he said, while recalling that he was not opposed to the vaccine.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Covid-19 is the leading cause of “on-duty” police death in the United States, with 237 dead from the coronavirus in 2021, compared to 50 by firearms, out of a total of 369.
