New York public employees sue over de Blasio's vaccine mandate

New York’s municipal unions sued the city Thursday, saying Mayor Bill de Blasio’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate infringes on workers’ rights to due process and religious freedom.

The lawsuit takes aim at a de Blasio executive order that requires Department of Education employees to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 27 in order to return to work.

The legal challenge comes as the city prepares to order the return of in-person work for its 300,000 municipal employees Monday.

Although the mayor’s order currently covers only the DOE, unions for the Police, Fire and Sanitation departments and others joined the suit.

“Our fear is there’s a vaccination-only policy headed our way. We want to make sure we keep the test-or-vaccine policy,” said Ignazio Azzara, president of the Uniformed Santiation Chiefs Association, who is party to the lawsuit. “We’re not against the vaccine, but our members have made it clear to us that they want a choice. We’d like the courts to decide what should be done.”

Most city employees who are currently unvaccinated have the option to undergo weekly testing. 

The Municipal Labor Committee, which represents healthcare negotiations for all municipal unions in the city, is the lawsuit’s lead plaintiff. Petitioners include District Council 37, the city’s largest public employee union; and the United Federation of Teachers, which represents all New York City public-school teachers. All public-school employees are represented by the lawsuit.

City employees have thus far resisted a return to the office as the COVID-19 delta variant surges. Henry Garrido, executive director of DC37, wrote an op-ed in the Daily News Friday, calling on the mayor to delay the mandated return of municipal employees to the office.

“Office conditions at city agencies have not been thoroughly checked to ensure they are safe by today’s new standards,” Garrido said. “This is a basic safety requirement for workers, many of whom have worked tirelessly from their homes and are now being thrown into a situation that puts them at risk—and potentially fuels another wave of the virus.”

De Blasio has thus far resisted making any concession on the return-to-work policy for public employees. There are no hybrid or remote-work options available for city workers.

The mayor made it clear that by tying the vaccine to employment he is hoping to increase workplace vaccination rates as the return-work-policy comes into effect this month. 

“We’re making policy based on: How do we serve the people of the city and how do we get the maximum number of people vaccinated?” de Blasio said Friday. “Our vaccine mandate will get a lot more people vaccinated.” 

The de Blasio administration did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.