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NYC Police Union Sues City Over Vaccine Mandate
New York City‘s largest police union filed a lawsuit against the city Monday in an effort to overturn a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its members.
The Police Benevolent Association (PBA) filed the suit in Staten Island Supreme Court and plans to file a request for a temporary injunction preventing the city from imposing the mandate while the lawsuit is pending.
The PBA said the mandate violates its members’ right to make their own medical decisions.
Raytheon Warns of Worker Losses as Companies Impose Vaccine Mandate
Raytheon Technologies’ (RTX.N) top boss warned on Tuesday the U.S. aerospace and defense firm will lose ‘several thousand’ employees who refused to take COVID-19 vaccines, as it prepares to meet the Biden administration‘s Jan. 1 deadline for immunization.
“We will lose several thousand people,” Raytheon Chief Executive Greg Hayes said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday, adding that staff hiring was underway. The company has a total of 125,000 U.S. employees.
GOP Doctors Caucus Warns Biden Healthcare Vaccine Mandate Could Worsen Patient Care, Labor Shortages
The GOP Doctors Caucus sent a pair of letters to President Biden and the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) warning a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers could worsen patient care and healthcare labor shortages.
“Further, this could have unintended, negative consequences on the quality of patient care and workforce shortages,” the congressional doctors warned.
Federal Judge Rejects Bid to Stop Washington Vaccine Mandate
A federal judge in Eastern Washington on Monday denied a bid by firefighters, state troopers and others to halt Washington’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for state workers and emergency responders.
A group of workers is suing Gov. Jay Inslee, Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste and others. The workers say their civil rights are being violated by the requirement they get vaccinated to continue in their jobs.
The plaintiffs filed a motion for a temporary restraining order, but KXLY reports U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rice denied the motion.
New Coalition of Federal Employees Sues Biden Over Vaccine Mandate
More than 50 federal employees from across the U.S. government have banded together to sue the Biden administration over coronavirus vaccine mandates, according to court documents.
The Washington-based Federal Practice Group filed the complaint against President Joe Biden and top agency officials in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Oct. 19 on behalf of dozens of federal workers and submitted an amended version on Oct. 20.
The Department of Homeland Security has 20 employees listed in the lawsuit, more than any other federal department or independent agency. All federal workers face a Nov. 22 deadline to be fully vaccinated, which is considered complete two weeks after the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson shot.
The Evolving Battle Over Vaccine Mandates | Opinion
Welcome to the autumn of the vaccine mandate showdowns. Let’s survey the shifting battleground.
A government-imposed vaccine mandate for all citizens remains off the table, at least for now. Requirements that government employees get a shot seem to have a stronger legal basis, but resistance is bubbling among the ranks of municipal police and fire departments. Even the military has heard some grumbles.
Some of the largest private companies that established a vaccine requirement are feeling the heat of pushback. Most notable are the airlines — the holiday travel season is now threatened by pilot and flight crew protests that could ground significant portions of their flying fleets.
Supreme Court Justices May Have Met a Vaccine Mandate Some of Them Don’t Like
A group of unvaccinated Maine health care workers are asking the Supreme Court to block a state rule that mandates certain healthcare facilities require their employees to be fully vaccinated, arguing that the requirement violates their religious liberty rights.
So far, the justices have declined invitations to strike down vaccine mandates at Indiana University and New York City schools, but the Maine dispute could be different. That’s because the workers are making religious claims that could attract some of the justices.
The case is reminiscent of religious liberty disputes that arose in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic when states passed strict rules seeking to combat the spread of the virus. The court’s conservative majority ruled in favor of houses of worship in those disputes.
Rutgers Issues Vaccine Mandate for All 25,600 Employees
Rutgers University is now telling all of its employees, from tenured professors to dining hall workers, that they must be fully vaccinated against coronavirus by Dec. 8 or risk being fired from their jobs.
“President Biden’s executive order supersedes other state or local rules, regulations, laws or executive orders. It does not allow for a regular testing option for those employees who choose not to be vaccinated,” announced Rutgers Chief Operating Officer Antonio Calcado.
While Rutgers will consider requests for medical/religious exemptions,”providing proof of full vaccination by Dec. 8 is not optional,” Calcado continued. “Failure to provide proof of full vaccination or receive a University-approved exemption by Dec. 8 will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.”
Federal Contractors for United Launch Alliance Walking off the Job, Protesting Vaccine Mandate
The deadline for federal employees and contractors to get the COVID-19 vaccine is getting closer. It’s Nov. 22 based on an Executive Order from President Biden.
We talked to federal contractors who work for United Launch Alliance in Decatur. They are furious. Many of these workers say they applied for religious exemptions or medical exemptions to the mandate and some learned last Friday, they were denied.
Monday, Governor Ivey issued an executive order saying the state will not force anyone to get a vaccine. “I’m all for the vaccine, but I’m not going to be a part of any federal mandates requiring you to do something,” Ivey said.
Exclusive: Billionaires Back New Media Firm to Combat Disinformation
A new public benefit corporation backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, George Soros, and others is launching Tuesday to fund new media companies and efforts that tackle disinformation.
Why it matters: Good Information Inc. aims to fund and scale businesses that cut through echo chambers with fact-based information. As part of its mission, it plans to invest in local news companies.
The group will be led by Tara McGowan, a former Democratic strategist who previously ran a progressive non-profit called ACRONYM. ACRONYM invested in for-profit companies that built media and technology solutions for progressive causes. It ran one of the largest digital campaigns to defeat President Trump in the 2020 election, totaling $100 million.
CDC Director Walensky Avoids Question on Vaccine Mandate for Essential Workers
Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky remains coy on whether the Biden administration would support COVID-19 vaccine mandates for essential workers or students.
Walensky said that the administration has “a plan” to encourage vaccinations and would point the more hesitant essential workers towards “education and counseling to get people the information they need.”
Police have remained a particularly resistant group. Major cities including Chicago and Los Angeles have enacted mandates for the police force, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio weighing his own possible mandate.
In Maine, Vaccine Mandate for EMTs Stresses Small-Town Ambulance Crews
Emergency Medical Service (EMS) crews have been busier than ever this year, as people who delayed getting care during the COVID-19 pandemic have grown progressively sicker.
But there’s limited workforce to meet the demand. Both nationally and in Maine, staffing issues have plagued the EMS system for years. It’s intense work that takes a lot of training and offers low pay. The requirement in Maine and elsewhere that paramedics and emergency medical technicians be vaccinated against COVID is another stress on the workforce.
Chicago Vaccine Mandate: Police Union Boss No Longer Banned From Speaking Out Against Policy, Judge Rules
Chicago police union head John Catanzara is no longer prohibited from publicly encouraging his members to disobey the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which expired Monday after a judge refused to extend it.
Cook County Judge Cecilia Horan denied city attorneys’ request for the order to be extended and expanded in a written ruling, saying the situation since the first injunction had “materially changed.”
Catanzara has directed members to defy the city’s requirement and been outspoken in recent days on social media and in person. He spoke Monday to dozens of protesters gathered outside Chicago’s City Hall and during a City Council meeting where he vowed there’d be “hundreds” of officers defying the order.
New Zealand Is Moving to a Two-tier Society, but the Unvaccinated Are Already a Global Underclass
New Zealand’s COVID policy has once again hit the headlines. Last week, Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, admitted that its new plans on loosening restrictions risked turning the country into a “two-tier” society.
Under the “traffic light” policy, those who are vaccinated will be able to move around and use services relatively freely, while the unjabbed will not.
But this policy is not confined to the Pacific island nation: vaccine passes are gaining traction around the world as countries introduce greater freedoms for those who are immunised, risking the creation of an unvaccinated underclass.
Planning Holiday Travel? Here’s How the American Airlines Employee Vaccine Mandate Could Impact Your Trip
If you plan on traveling for the holidays, experts warn there may not be the usual staff on hand for your flight. Piedmont Airlines flight attendants voted to authorize a strike last week, and pilots for several airlines are pushing back on vaccination requirements with deadlines looming next month.
“We are flying more in the winter according to American than we flew in the summer,” Captain Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association representing American Airlines pilots, said.
“We don’t know how many pilots are going to be out there available to fly,” Tajer said. Tajer said they don’t know because of the impending vaccine mandate for American Airlines employees.
