Mayor Didn't Consult Private-Sector Unions on Vaccine Mandate, Either

Citing an increase in coronavirus infections and the emergence of the Omicron variant, Mayor de Blasio Dec. 6 mandated that the city's 200,000 private employers require their workers be vaccinated—but set the order to take effect Dec. 27, just five days before he leaves office.

He credited his vaccine mandate for municipal employees with producing a 94-percent compliance rate, compared to 81.4 percent of the general adult population in the five boroughs.

Familiar Venue, Odd Timing

The Mayor announced the new mandate on MSNBC's "Morning Joe"—which has increasingly served as the vehicle for significant initiatives over his final weeks in the job. He said it would be needed to head off a spike in infections linked to holiday gatherings—although it won't kick in until the holiday parties of most employers would have been held—and colder weather required more indoor gatherings, where the virus is known to spread more quickly.

The mandate goes beyond what the Biden Administration has sought. U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh signed off on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration implementing a vaccine policy that offers regular testing for the virus as an option for private firms with 100 or more employees. Enforcement of that regulation is on hold while several courts sort out challenges brought by a group of Republican state attorneys general.

Mr. de Blasio told reporters at his briefing following the announcement that city officials would work closely with private employers before finalizing rules that would be released Dec. 15. 

"A lot of folks in the private sector have said to me, they believe in vaccination, but they're not quite sure how they can do it themselves," he said. "Well, we're going to do it. We're going to do this so that every employer is on a level playing field."

Will Adams Go Along?

It is not clear, however, that Mayor-elect Eric Adams will carry on the mandate, which has spurred speculation that the current Mayor's move was largely a political one aimed to advance his apparent plan to run for Governor.

But the Mayor said that he had two conversations on the subject with Mr. Adams before the Brooklyn Borough President left for Ghana, and his successor was "really consistent on the point that he is feeling urgency about these new threats and he understands that my job is to keep New Yorkers safe until Dec. 31 and then hand the baton to him."

Mr. Adams's chief spokesman, Evan Thies, told the Associated Press that the Mayor-elect once in office would "make determinations based on science, efficacy and the advice of health professionals."

The mandate will take the form of an order issued by Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi, who said that "many of the essential workers who have been at risk throughout the pandemic are at greater risk when they are in close quarters with unvaccinated colleagues."

'Better Protect People'

Noting the number of cases at hospitals of "unvaccinated patients expressing regret for their decision in terrifying moments of remorse, like just before they have to be placed on a breathing tube. And I thought about how we can better protect people who remain vulnerable despite widespread access to vaccination, like children who are still too young to get the vaccine and New Yorkers with weakened immune systems, such as those with cancer on chemotherapy."

Spokespeople for the AFL-CIO New York City Central Labor Committee, an umbrella group for 1.3 million private-sector as well as public employees, and the city Building Trades Council said that Mr. de Blasio had not consulted them about the new mandate.

Municipal-union leaders have criticized his unwillingness to negotiate with them as a group on the city mandate. Both the police and fire unions have pending lawsuits seeking to block its application to their members.

John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union, whose Metropolitan Transportation Authority members are given a weekly testing alternative to inoculation, said the Mayor's private-sector mandate showed "that once again he is out of touch with working people in New York City and the country."

Conflicting Rules an Issue

He added that the "Mayor just had no business doing this, and for what? So he can appear to be getting out ahead of Marty Walsh and President Biden? Working people need a consistent standard, and conflicts with the rules varying depending on the jurisdiction is how we got into so much trouble when Trump left it to the states."

Mr. Samuelsen predicted that the mandate "would provide yet another excuse for workers to disdain establishment Democrats, and make places like Florida look better and better."

Two days before Thanksgiving, Mr. de Blasio called on Gov. Hochul to impose a vaccine mandate at the MTA workforce.

That agency says more than 80 percent of its workers are vaccinated.

Political consultant George Arzt, a Press Secretary for Mayor Ed Koch, said of the private-sector mandate, "Why so late in his administration? Is there really a crisis? Has it gotten worse? Is there something he knows we don't? Why do it when you know people are going to shout it's political?"

He added, "Something this draconian is going to give oxygen to the Republicans, and it undercuts what the President is trying to do."

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