NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New York City municipal unions, including police, firefighters and teachers, filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop the city from firing unvaccinated members.
The lawsuit comes in advance of the Friday deadline for city workers to get vaccinated, which could lead to the termination of 4,000 jobs.
Over two dozen unions filed the lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court, according to The New York Post. The unions argue the mass firing would violate the unvaccinated employees right to due process.
Termination letters were recently distributed to unvaccinated city employees who were not able to secure religious or health exemptions, according to PIX 11.
“UFT members are entitled to access to the due process protections embodied in statutes and agreements the DOE is compelled to follow," said the United Federation of Teachers, one of the unions involved in the suit. "The DOE’s attempt to summarily terminate unvaccinated employees denies UFT-represented employees the rights they are guaranteed by statute and contract…”
Dina Kolker, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit, characterized the legal action as a labor issue instead of a stand against vaccines.
“It’s not about the mandate itself or challenging that,” said Kolker. “It really is about the discrete issue that if they can deprive these workers of their due process rights and terminate them for this non-compliance then they can get around these due process rights in the future on some other issue.”
A spokesperson for the city’s law department told the Post that other, similar lawsuits have created a clear precedent that allows employment to be made contingent on vaccination status.
A group of city workers marched across the Brooklyn Bridge Monday to protest the vaccine mandate.
Mayor Eric Adams told PIX 11 that over 90% of city employees are fully vaccinated. Even more got exemptions, leaving a relatively small cadre of unvaccinated workers who are liable to lose their jobs.
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