One day after a judge ruled in favor of a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for Port Authority employees, a notice was sent out Friday, warning riders that significant delays and missed trips could occur by Tuesday, March 15th.
According to Port Authority officials, more than 500 employees are unvaccinated and, if they don’t comply with the vaccine mandate, they will be held off of pay starting on March 16th until their disciplinary hearings the following week.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly shown the need to provide a safe transit environment for riders who rely on our services every day,” said Port Authority CEO Katharine Kelleman.
“Enforcing the vaccine requirement is the best way for us to keep our riders, employees, and all our families safe.”
On Monday, ATU Local 85 president Ross Ncotero, who represents Port Authority employees, described the potentially termination of hundreds of workers as “sickening.”
“So many of our members, 24 or 25 years (have worked for the Port Authority), just (are told) ‘you’re done,’” he said. “They’ve worked here a quarter-century, and they’re told just to go home.
“We would never condone — I know the past presidents and predecessors — would never condone a work stoppage. We take pride in what we do here. Our maintenance department, our operators, claims, secretarial — and I know that I’m probably missing classifications — we come to work, and that’s all that we’re asking.”
But the Port Authority’s leadership, as of Monday evening, is remaining steadfast, and has support at the governmental level.
“If they’re not vaccinated by the deadline, the court’s rule, they’ll be gone,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald told the KDKA Morning Show. “And that’s fine. We’ll get workers that want to show up to work, that want to be safe.
“This is a very good job. We respect the operators who do this, the mechanics, the drivers, they do good work. But for the people who don’t want to serve the public in a safe way, they’ll be replaced.”
The Port Authority says the agency will not be able to deliver up to 20% of its scheduled service for several weeks. Trying to determine where service outages will occur will be day-to-day.
Port Authority officials say 80% of the agency’s 2,700 employees are fully-vaccinated, including every new employee since October of 2021.
Fitzgerald added: "For people who don’t want to be vaccinated and who, quite frankly, want to spread this deadly disease on a bus, that’s not who we want serving the public.“
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