Thousands of Chicago city workers, including firefighters, should be required to receive a full dose of COVID vaccine by the end of January, or risk losing their jobs, an arbitrator has ruled.
On Dec. 15, arbitrator George T. Roumell Jr. denied grievances by unions representing the Chicago city workers, finding the city of Chicago had the authority under the unions’ collective bargaining agreements to unilaterally impose the COVID vaccine mandates ordered by Mayor Lori Lightfoot months ago.
In two rulings – one applying to grievances submitted by the union representing Chicago’s rank and file firefighters, and another to grievances filed by nearly two dozen other unions representing a wide range of city employees – the arbitrator determined that shifting employees who refuse to comply with the vaccine mandate to “no-pay status,” does not amount to discipline.
Rather, he said, it is akin to the city determining that those employees are “no longer fit for duty.”
Therefore, the arbitrator said, the city is empowered under the CBAs to terminate employees who refuse to receive a COVID vaccine, without first bargaining with the unions over the terms of the COVID vaccine mandate.
City Hall and the unions have been embroiled in a court fight over the fate of the vaccine mandates, since earlier this fall, when unions representing police officers, firefighters and thousands of other Chicago city workers filed suit.
The unions asserted the city has steadfastly refused to negotiate over the vaccine mandate, or heed the unions’ accusations of unfair labor practices against the city.
Under Lightfoot’s mandate, all city employees, including those represented by unions, were required to report their vaccination status to City Hall, and then were required to each receive a full dose of a COVID vaccine by the end of 2021. Failure to abide by these orders could result in various penalties, potentially including being fired.
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.
The police union was the first to file suit, and the first to secure a temporary reprieve in court. In their case, Cook County Judge Raymond Mitchell ruled Lightfoot had denied police officers a meaningful opportunity to press their grievances over the vaccine mandate.
The judge ruled union grievances must be heard before any workers can be fired, because vaccinations cannot be reversed.
The other city worker unions pointed to that decision in their later filings, seeking similar reprieves.
In response, the city and the unions moved aggressively to complete the arbitration process over the mandate before the Dec. 31 mandate deadline.
While the police union is still awaiting word on the status of its grievances, the rulings from arbitrator Roumell indicate their claims will likely also fail, and the mandate will also apply to them.
It is unclear ultimately how many workers may lose employment under the mandate.
According to the arbitrator’s rulings, perhaps three-quarters of all city workers had been vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time of the arbitration proceedings. The ruling indicates compliance in some city departments could amount to 94 percent.
In his rulings, Roumell reset the vaccine deadlines back by one month, instructing city workers to receive the first dose of one of the two-dose COVID vaccines by Dec. 31, with the second dose completed by Jan. 31.
He further said religious and medical exemption requests must have been filed by Dec. 8 to be considered. Anyone who filed such a request that is denied by the city would then have six weeks to complete the vaccine course.
The city workers, excluding the firefighters, were represented in the arbitration proceedings by attorneys Steven Yokich, George Luscombe, Mike Newman, Joe Healy, Bob Chianelli and Jerry Rankins.
The firefighters were represented by attorneys George R. Robinson, Jerry Marzullo and Amanda Clark.
The city was represented by attorneys David A. Johnson and Jennifer Dunn, of the city’s Department of Law.
Following the ruling, a spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Law released a statement, saying: “The city is pleased that a neutral arbitrator selected by both parties upheld the city's right to issue a vaccine mandate to its employees. The arbitrator further upheld the city's right to place employees who do not become vaccinated by the deadline in a no-pay status.”