After a judge granted the request of Chicago’s Police union and slapped a hold on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s COVID vaccine mandate, unions representing thousands of other Chicago city workers have asked a Cook County judge to similarly order the mayor to bargain with them before forcing their unvaccinated workers to take the jab or risk losing their jobs.
On Nov. 5, attorney George A. Luscombe III, with the firm of Dowd Bloch Bennett Cervone Auerbach & Yokich, of Chicago, filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of about two dozen labor union locals.
The lawsuit seeks court orders blocking City Hall from enforcing Lightfoot’s Dec. 31 COVID vaccine deadline for city workers, until the city and the unions complete arbitration over the terms of any COVID vaccine rules for city workers.
They stressed they are not attempting to block Lightfoot’s orders requiring city workers to be tested twice weekly for COVID.
The unions further noted the membership of the bargaining units are at least 72% vaccinated against COVID, with some units exceeding 90% vaccinated.
However, they said, hundreds of city workers whom the unions represent remain unvaccinated against COVID, at this point.
“For objecting bargaining unit members, no arbitration award after the fact can undo the harm caused as a result of an individual being forced to receive a vaccination to which they have deeply held concerns or objections,” the unions wrote in their complaint.
“… If the requested injunction is not granted, the Plaintiff Unions’ – and their members’ – fundamental rights under their labor agreements and labor law will be irreparably trammeled.”
The police union was the first to challenge Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate order in court.
Under the mayor’s orders, all city employees, including those represented by unions, were required to report their vaccination status to City Hall by mid-October, and then were required to each receive a full dose of a COVID vaccine by the end of the year. Failure to abide by these orders could result in discipline, including termination.
The Chicago city worker vaccine mandate was similar to mandates issued by other private and public employers, including the state of Illinois, through Gov. JB Pritzker.
Police officers and firefighters, in particular, have pushed back against the vaccine orders.
A group of Chicago firefighters, along with other city workers, filed suit in federal court, claiming the mandates violated their constitutional rights.
A federal judge in that case refused their request for a temporary restraining order against the city’s vaccine mandate.
The Chicago Police union, however, opted for a different strategy, petitioning a Cook County judge to declare the vaccine mandates violated their rights under their collective bargaining agreement.
Cook County Judge Raymond Mitchell agreed, saying Lightfoot denied police officers a meaningful opportunity to press their grievances over the vaccine mandate.
While the city agreed the dispute belonged in arbitration, Judge Mitchell noted arbitration would be meaningless if the city was still allowed to force city workers to be vaccinated against their will, while the arbitration continued.
In their new complaint, the other 23 labor unions specifically pointed to Mitchell’s decision to support their claims against the city.
They directly quoted from Mitchell’s decision, noting the judge’s words: “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.”
The city has not yet responded to the unions’ complaint.