Chicago must reinstate city employees who were fired for refusing to comply with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and rescind the requirement, a state administrative law judge has ruled.
The decision came Wednesday in a case before the Illinois Labor Relations Board involving more than 20 unions representing city employees, which filed an unfair labor practices charge with the state panel after Lightfoot imposed the policy in the fall of 2021.A separate but similar matter involving the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, the city’s largest police union, remains pending.
Likewise, the city unilaterally changed the status quo in August of last year when it began terminating employees who hadn’t complied with the policy, electing “to pursue a far harsher approach than it had taken before against violators of its vaccination policy.” A spokesperson for AFSCME Council 31 applauded the ruling as a “strong decision will bolster workers’ rights going forward.”
While the FOP’s matter is still pending and tied up in court, the police union’s president, John Catanzara, celebrated the decision as “a great day for labor in Chicago and the state of Illinois.” The board’s ruling concerned many of the same issues that were raised in a separate federal lawsuit filed against the city last week on behalf of 15 current and former Chicago police officers.The officers allege the city imposed illegal disciplinary measures against them after they cited religious exemptions in their initial refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
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