Many City Employees Still Unvaccinated Despite NYC Mayor's 'Vax-Or-Test' COVID Order

[MisterNiceKitty]

https://gothamist.com/news/many-city-employees-still-unvaccinated-despite-nyc-mayors-vax-or-test-covid-order
Elizabeth Kim

"A month after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that all municipal workers must get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing, the rate of inoculation among this 367,000-member workforce has barely budged.

As of Monday, 58% of city workers—or 211,115 people—have received at least one dose of the vaccines, according to data provided by the mayor’s office. Nearly 13,000 of those city workers got their first shots in the weeks following the mayor's mandate for hospital employees on July 21st and the universal requirement on July 26th.

That’s an increase of just four percentage points in four weeks, a testament to the challenge facing New York City officials as they desperately try to ramp up vaccination rates in the fight against the more infectious delta variant."

[Mr.Bill]

1. Start charging for the tests.

They are the reason the tests are necessary, they should pay for them.

[Enter stage left]

2. Yes! Make them pay for the tests...

$x for the first one,

$x2 for the second one,

$x3 for the third one...

You get the idea.

[MisterNiceKitty]

3. Since these are unions and this is a condition of employment

It will have to be collectively bargained. At the same time, the employer is the one asking for the tests and so should provide accommodation. Most likely this will be onsite testing as in the CUNY case but time will tell.

[Enter stage left]

4. Good point...

and I do support unions, but they need to take a stand for vaccines as well.

These are their members, we can't afford to lose union members.

[MichMan]

5. Show me where in our contract, it says we don't have the right to infect others

[MisterNiceKitty]

6. which union are you in?

[MichMan]

7. Retired

Was a UAW member at one time. Unions shouldn't push back against vaccine mandates; they should be leading the way

[MisterNiceKitty]

8. so you understand about collective bargaining rights and why they exist?

why would you want to jettison that for any reason when other perfectly legal accommodations can be made?

[MichMan]

9. Unions should be leading the way to protect their members with vaccines

Not dragging their feet

[MisterNiceKitty]

10. unions exist to protect the collective bargaining rights of workers.

Medical related issues are for our health authorities to lead on and unfortunately they are the ones doing a rather inadequate job.