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Twenty-four former New York City workers who lost their jobs for refusing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate testified Tuesday at a City Council Committee on Civil Service and Labor meeting about how the mandates have affected their lives.
Although the city officially ended its COVID-19 vaccine mandate in February, many workers who lost their jobs to what The New York Times called an “aggressive and contentious mandate” continue to fight to have those jobs reinstated.
Some fired workers who were ultimately re-employed by the city lost their seniority, tenure and their right to challenge their employment status, workers testified.
“No one should be made to choose between his or her livelihood and a potentially deadly DNA-altering and experimental injection,” former teacher Rachel Maniscalco told the committee. “All city employees who were fired or were forced to resign during the vaccine mandate deserve an apology. We deserve our jobs back if we want them, and we’ve never stopped demanding to be made whole.”
“We Will Never Stop Demanding to Be Made Whole.”
NYC Teacher Fired Under DOE Vax Mandate and Never Reinstated Speaks at City Council Civil Service and Labor Committee Meeting pic.twitter.com/2MQ67QPgjf
— NYCforYourself (@nycforyourself) December 20, 2023
Michael Kane of Teachers For Choice spoke about the problem codes — the same ones assigned to people accused of molesting, raping or injuring a child — that were assigned to educators who were placed on unpaid leave for declining the vaccine, according to an internal email sent in 2022.
“One of the most egregious punishments … was the brandishing of a problem code, a scarlet letter that was placed on all unvaccinated employees,” Kane said. “These problem codes have prevented many from obtaining employment in New York City and outside as well.”
“Recently Mayor Adams had said, ‘When you can’t work you’re being exploited. We fought hard to get rid of draconian rules. That’s why we’ve been saying to the national leaders, let them work.’ But he wasn’t speaking about unvaccinated, fired individuals.”
NYC Teacher… pic.twitter.com/VKNby8twVM
— NYCforYourself (@nycforyourself) December 20, 2023
Nine members of Congress representing New York demanded a full investigation by New York City Department of Education Chancellor David Banks into the problem codes in June, but Banks has yet to respond.
Teacher’s assistant Garrett Ramirez told the committee, “The hiring mandate has been lifted, but not the firing mandate.” People who were terminated remain terminated, he said. “Everyone put on the chopping block by the city is still bleeding, presumably as a warning to anyone else who might think about standing up for their rights and their health.”
Matt Connor from Bravest for Choice, a group of New York firefighters, medics and EMTs who oppose vaccine mandates, told a reporter after the hearing that workers across the city are still suffering, but the public doesn’t know.
“The bottom line is people are still hurting,” Connor said. “We’re coming up on the holiday season and people are still out of work. People losing their houses. If you listened to the testimony, you heard these powerful stories, people who are literally risking everything to stand up and hold the line against the mandates. And a lot of people don’t realize it’s still going on.”
Connor emphasized the importance of public participation in making change. “We have to be here and be present in our processes of government and hold our government accountable for what was done here,” he said.
Teachers, firefighters, EMTs, sanitation workers, social workers and others testified.
Mayor Bill DeBlasio implemented the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for teachers and staff of the Department of Education in August 2021. In October, the state set similar requirements for healthcare workers. In October, DeBlasio extended the mandate to all city employees, who had to show proof of at least one dose of vaccination against COVID-19 by Oct. 29, 2021.
Thousands of workers faced termination, either because they were denied religious exemptions or because they simply decided not to comply with the mandate.
Numerous lawsuits were filed in federal and state courts challenging the mandates, with some key wins for plaintiffs.
In October 2022, a New York Supreme Court judge struck down the mandates as “arbitrary and capricious” ruling in favor of 16 unvaccinated city workers who sued following their termination.
That historic ruling applied not only to the 16 workers who sued but also to all public employees in New York City, including the police and fire department.
But in that case, the city appealed the ruling and the appeals process is ongoing.
And a group of teachers backed by Children’s Health Defense won a precedent-setting case in September when a New York State Supreme Court judge ruled that 10 New York City school teachers fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds must be reinstated with back pay, benefits, seniority and attorney fees.
But the city immediately appealed the decision, so none of those teachers have returned to their jobs or received any payments.
As the litigation works its way through the appeals process, it is important for the public and legislators to seek ways to support the workers and get them reinstated in their jobs, Connor said.
“I think one thing at this point we should all be able to agree on is that people that want to continue to serve this city should be offered the opportunity to be reinstated without being coerced to sign away their legal rights,” he said.
Kane told The Defender it was inspiring to see so many people turn out to tell their stories and support the workers.
“Three years into this battle it is fantastic to see new people showing up to speak their truth on the record. It is a sign that our movement is still alive, thriving and growing!” he wrote on the Teachers for Choice Substack.
