The union representing correctional officers plans to fight any requirement for its members to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to The Sacramento Bee.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association said in a memo emailed to members that it will use "all the tools at its disposal" to resist the state's Department of Public Health order that employees at health care facilities must be fully vaccinated by the end of September.
The union said it will not fight the July 26 order from Gov. Gavin Newsom that would mandate vaccinations for almost all state workers. Newsom's order allowed for workers to opt-out of vaccinations if they wear a mask at work and get tested regularly.
The union's Friday memo said that because most prisons provide some kind of health care to inmates the requirement would apply to its members. However, the paper reported that the Public Health Department's press office said in a Monday evening email that the order related to employees at health care facilities does not apply to facilities in California's 34 state prisons. Instead, those locations must follow Newsom's order that state workers need to show proof of vaccination or get tested regularly for COVID-19.
The press office added that the department would be issuing new guidance for health care facilities at prisons.
However, the union took issue with the very idea of a mandate, saying it violated workers' contracts with the state and was not necessary.
"CCPOA believes both of these orders exceed what is medically necessary to slow and prevent the spread of COVID inside the institutions," the union's executive team wrote in the memo.
Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, the director of the state's Department of Public Health, in contrast, stressed the necessity of increasing vaccination rates in last week's order.
"As we continue to see an increase in cases and hospitalizations due to the Delta variant of COVID-19, it's important that we protect the vulnerable patients in these settings," he said.
"Vaccines are how we end this pandemic."
