NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to issue a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all MTA workers.
Declaring that "mandates work" at a press conference, the mayor stressed that issuing vaccine orders is crucial for keeping New Yorkers safe.
"Let me give you the evidence, the mandate we put on our public workforce. Yeah, there was noise. There was controversy, but, in the end, it was the right thing to do. It kept people safe," he said. "It kept the whole city safe."
De Blasio believes a mandate will work for the MTA as well and called on the governor to issue the order as a way of keeping all transit workers and commuters safe from the virus.
"Governor Hochul, here's an opportunity to do something that will really help New York City, put a mandate in place for MTA employees. It's time to do it," de Blasio said.
"We depend on all the good men and women who worked for the MTA. We thank them. They've been heroes during the COVID crisis, but we've got to get out of the COVID era," he added. "We need them to be vaccinated for the safety of each other and their families, their communities, for the safety of the passengers."
De Blasio's vaccine mandate for nearly all municipal employees went into effect at the beginning of November, prompting a significant number of city workers to get their shots.
At his press conference, the mayor noted that since the mandate took effect, 87% of the NYPD has been vaccinated, FDNY EMS is at 93%, FDNY firefighters are at 89% and the Department of Sanitation is at 88%.
"We know mandates work and we've got to double down," de Blasio said.
The MTA is a state-run agency and any vaccine mandate for workers would have to be issued by Gov. Hochul, who oversees the agency.
The agency previously ordered all 70,000 workers to get vaccinated against the virus or face weekly COVID-19 testing.
Gov. Hochul has not publicly said if she will issue a vaccine mandate for the MTA and 1010 WINS has reached out to her office for comment.
In response to de Blasio's call Tuesday, MTA acting Chairman Janno Lieber told 1010 WINS that he feels the MTA's current system is working just fine.
"We respect the mayor and we respect Eric Adams who is going to succeed him, but we've talked about a lot of this stuff, especially about safety of the subways which he's passionate about. But look, what we're doing with respect to vax and tests, which is what we're doing, is working," Lieber said.
He stressed that four out of every five MTA employees is fully vaccinated, and they are currently at a 0.6% COVID-19 positivity rate among the unvaccinated workforce.
"We're not interested in ideological debates about vax or not," Lieber added. "What we're interested in is that when you walk into a subway and you expect certain service, that the train is going to come on time, that we're succeeding in doing that. We want to make sure all of our workforce is there."
Lieber added that the MTA has been in talks with Gov. Hochul, who he said has made safety on the subways, buses and commuter rails a "core mission."
He also said that the MTA is hopeful that when Adams takes office in January, he will express reservations regarding vaccine mandates.
