New York City Set to Fire Thousands of Municipal Workers for Not Getting Shots

VOA News

New York City is preparing to fire up to 4,000 government workers for failing to comply with the city’s vaccine mandate.

Among those impacted are teachers, police officers, sanitation workers and firefighters.

Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio imposed vaccine mandates on municipal and private sector workers last year.

City workers have until the end of business Friday to comply with the mandate or lose their jobs. Most of those impacted have been on unpaid leave.

“We have to be very clear — people must be vaccinated if they are New York City employees,” Eric Adams, a Democrat who took over as mayor in January, said at a news conference Thursday.

Labor unions representing city workers have fought against the mandates by suing the city. So far, those efforts have failed.
On Monday, city workers staged a protest by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall.

The firings come as infection rates are falling sharply and many states and countries around the world are lifting many COVID-19-related restrictions, including vaccine mandates in some cases.

An estimated 95% of the city’s roughly 370,000 workers are vaccinated, according to news reports.