The union representing Chicago’s firefighters has joined the list of city worker unions asking a court to slap a hold on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s COVID vaccine mandate, because the mayor sidestepped their collective bargaining agreement and state labor law in imposing the requirement that all city workers get the shot, or potentially lose their job.
They are represented in the action by attorneys, including Local 2 General Counsel George R. Robinson, and Matthew M. Welch, Erin E. Blake and John M. Wise, of the firm of Montana & Welch, of Palos Heights.
The complaint closely mirrors a suit filed days earlier by nearly two dozen other union locals representing thousands of city workers, objecting to Mayor Lightfoot’s “unilateral” imposition of the mandate.
Under the policy, 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 receive a full dose of a COVID vaccine by Dec. 31. Any workers who resisted those orders could be subject to discipline, including termination.
Police officers and firefighters, in particular, have pushed back against the vaccine orders.
A group of Chicago firefighters, along with other city workers, apart from their unions, 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.
Unions, however, have opted for a different strategy, petitioning Cook County judges to declare the vaccine mandates violated their rights under their collective bargaining agreements and state labor law.
In the union’s comlaint, however, the union says Lightfoot has ignored or rejected their requests to bargain over the new rules. The union said it filed grievances over the city’s refusal to bargain over the vaccine mandates.
The firefighters are seeking a court order similar to one granted to the Chicago Police union on Nov. 1, blocking the city from enforcing the vaccine mandate against police officers and ordering the city into arbitration with that union over its grievances.
Shortly after the police union won its arguments, more lawsuits have followed from other city worker unions seeking similar results.
In their complaint, the firefighters note that 1,049 firefighters, or more than 20% of all Chicago firefighters, remained unvaccinated as of Nov. 8.
Without a court order blocking city enforcement of the vaccine mandate, those firefighters will face the choice of either receiving the vaccine against their will, or losing their job, even as the union continues to press its grievances under their contract and the law.
The firefighters noted that, even after the court granted the order to the police union, the city still sent out reminders to city workers concerning the requirement to get vaccinated by Dec. 31.
“For the large percentage of 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 firefighters said in their complaint.