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 A coalition of 23 Chicago labor
unions have filed a complaint in Cook County Circuit Court seeking a temporary
suspension of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Dec. 31 COVID-19 vaccination deadline for
city employees.
The plaintiffs including Teamsters Local 700, Chicago Journeyman Plumbers Local
130 and Service Employees International Union Local 1. They filed for an
injunction Nov. 5 to force arbitration over Lightfoot’s citywide mandate,
pushing to delay the New Year’s Eve deadline for members to get fully vaccinated
until the dispute is resolved.
The filing arrives days after a Cook County judge ruled the city could not
enforce the mayor’s deadline for Chicago police officers to get the shot without
first going through arbitration with union representatives.
The new petition cites a Nov. 1 ruling by Judge Raymond Mitchell in favor of the
Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, arguing the mayor’s mandate infringes on the
various unions’ collective bargaining powers, which are protected under state
law.
The coalition’s compliant states Mitchell’s court decision for the police
“addressed the identical question of irreparable harm” that Lightfoot’s
vaccination mandate would inflict on the bargaining units.
An Illinois appellate court Nov. 9 denied the city of Chicago’s petition to
reverse Mitchell’s ruling.
The group argues a suspension of the Dec. 31 deadline is necessary while the
parties negotiate or else it will be too late to “undo the harm” caused by the
forced inoculations.
“The unilateral changes made by the Defendants have eroded the morale of
employees in the Plaintiff Union bargaining units,” the petition reads. “The
City’s unilateral action has diminished support for the Plaintiff Unions as the
exclusive bargaining representatives for the employees in their respective
bargaining units.”
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Lightfoot announced her COVID-19 mandates for city
workers in August, requiring all city employees to report their
vaccination status by Oct. 15. The directive further stipulated
workers be fully vaccinated by Dec. 31 or undergo regular
coronavirus testing in the upcoming year.
The legal challenges accumulating against Lightfoot’s COVID-19
mandates mirror growing pushback seen at the state level, where
unions continue to dispute Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mandates.
The governor pushed for and signed Nov. 8 an amendment to the
Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act in an effort to stymie
numerous standing lawsuits that cite the conscience law as grounds
for preserving Illinoisans’ choices about vaccinations. Illinois
Fraternal Order of Police President Chris Southwood responded Nov. 9
by calling Pritzker a “dictator” and threatened political payback.
“Freedom-loving citizens all across the state have been stripped of
their basic right to conscientious choice and can now be
discriminated against because of their conscientious refusal to have
COVID vaccines forced on them,” Southwood told WMAY.
The amendment will help Pritzker to combat legal challenges and let
employers discipline employees for refusing to comply with COVID-19
rules, including mandatory vaccinations and testing.
Despite the flurry of legal challenges to Lightfoot’s mandates, more
employees are complying, according to city data. As of Nov. 8, the
citywide response rate on reporting vaccination statuses was close
to 90%. Of those who complied, the share of vaccinated employees was
72%.
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