Chicago’s police union has won officers a reprieve, for now, from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s order requiring them to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or get fired.
On Nov. 1, Cook County Judge Raymond Mitchell issued an order requiring the city to bargain with the union over Lightfoot's mandate, which had given police officers until Dec. 31 to receive a full dose of COVID vaccine, or risk being fired.
In his order, Judge Mitchell said the court order is needed at this time to preserve the unionized police officers’ rights to a meaningful arbitration process under Illinois labor law.
Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara
“This case then presents two competing public interests, but one interest need not be scuttled in favor of another,” Mitchell wrote. “The City’s public health objective and the police union’s desire to pursue their grievances are not wholly irreconcilable.
“… It is worth remembering that in the darkest days of the pandemic and the months that followed, when I worked remotely in the safety of my home, the men and women of the Chicago Police Department showed up to work. It should be no surprise then as the City tells us that COVID was the leading cause of death among police in the United States in 2020 and 2021.
“In light of that terrible sacrifice, the police unions’ request just to have their grievances heard seems a pretty modest ask.”
City Hall and the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge No. 7 have been in court since Oct. 20, when the police union sued the city over Lightfoot’s COVID vaccine mandate orders.
Under the policy, Lightfoot ordered all city employees, including those represented by unions, like police officers and firefighters, to receive a full dose of a COVID vaccine by the end of the year, or face discipline, up to and including termination.
The vaccine mandate was similar in many respects to mandates issued by other employers, and the state of Illinois, through Gov. JB Pritzker.
Some police officers and firefighters and other city workers have pushed back against the orders, filing suit to block enforcement.
In one lawsuit, filed in federal court, a group of firefighters and other city workers claimed the vaccine mandates violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution and Illinois’ state Health Care Right of Conscience Act, among other laws.
In that action, however, a Chicago federal judge ruled late last week that those firefighters and other city workers shouldn’t win even a temporary stay of the city’s ability to compel them to receive a COVID vaccine against their will, as a condition of employment.
The Chicago Police union opted for a different legal strategy. Rather than emphasizing officers’ constitutional rights, the police union argued the mayor’s orders violated their collective bargaining rights.
They argued Lightfoot cannot just simply order all police officers to get vaccinated, while giving officers no recourse to bargain over the terms of such a vaccine mandate.
Judge Mitchell, for now, agreed, saying the city has denied the officers a meaningful opportunity to press their grievances over Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate.
Mitchell noted both the city and the police union agree, under the terms of the police union’s contract, the dispute over the vaccine orders likely belongs in arbitration.
But the judge noted there can be no “meaningful” arbitration in this case, unless the city is blocked from forcing police officers to get vaccinated as a condition of keeping their jobs.
In his order, Mitchell cited a “maxim of labor law,” namely, “Obey now, grieve later.”
But in this case, he said, “’Obey now, grieve later’ is not possible,” because vaccinations cannot be reversed.
Mitchell said he believes the city’s vaccine mandates are simply an effort by the city to both promote public health and protect its officers in the face of a pandemic.
But he said that does not mean the police officers’ rights to bargain over such workplace grievances can be simply ignored.
“If every union member complied and was vaccinated by December 31 … they would have no grievance to pursue and there would be no remedy an arbitrator could award,” the judge wrote. “An award of back pay or reinstatement cannot undo a vaccine. Nothing can.
“… ‘Obey now, grieve later’ would be transformed into ‘obey now and forever’ – without a meaningful opportunity to arbitrate.”
Mitchell said the city may still be able to enforce its mandate by the original Dec. 31 deadline. But he said it should only be allowed to do so if it pursues “an accelerated arbitration,” which must be mutually agreed to by both parties under the police union’s collective bargaining agreement.
“The effect of this Order is to send these parties back to the bargaining table and to promote labor peace by allowing them to pursue the remedies provided for in the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act,” Mitchell wrote.