The National Nurses Union applauded President Joe Biden’s proposal to require companies with more than 100 employees to vaccinate their workforce. The American Federation of Teachers once said vaccination mandates were not necessary, but now embraces them. In Oregon, police and fire unions are demanding to block a mask warrant for state workers.
The labor movement is torn by vaccination requirements, as is the country as a whole, wanting to support its political ally in Biden and protect its members from infection, but they also do not want to trample on the rights of their workers.
“Unions are a microcosm of the society we live in,” said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of The Worker Institute at Cornell University. “The same political division we have right now exists within the bases of the unions.”
This split complicates Biden’s affairs as he tries to control the delta variant. Unions are a key part of the Democratic Party and Biden has embraced them to shine his blue middle class image. Dissent in Biden’s own coalition can especially hinder the implementation of new vaccination requirements. Some unions representing federal workers have already opposed their push for inoculation among the U.S. government workforce, saying those issues involving new job and discipline requirements need to be negotiated at the table. of negotiation.
As a sign of the importance of the issue for the Biden administration, the White House contacted union presidents before Biden announced its new policy on Thursday and will continue to check with labor leaders, a U.S. official said. administration, which insisted on anonymity to discuss upcoming plans.
Biden will require companies with more than 100 employees to beat their employees or test them weekly. It will also mandate executive branch workers and federal contractors without any trial options. The new requirements could cover 100 million Americans.
The momentum seems to be on the side of the mandates. The AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization for much of the country’s unions, praised Biden’s mandates and plan in a statement released Friday. “The resurgence of COVID-19 requires swift and immediate action and we congratulate President Biden for taking additional steps to help end this crisis. Everyone needs to be vaccinated, as a step to stop the pandemic,” she said. the organization, Liz Shuler.
The AFT two weeks ago demanded the vaccination of its employees in its offices and has become a staunch advocate of jobs that require vaccinations. “Safety and health have been our northern star since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the union. The union’s support for the mandates, he added, “creates great joy among two-thirds of our people and will create unrest in one-third of the people.”
Still, many labor leaders are hesitant to delve deeper into the issue of tenure. Many of the employers in West Pennsylvania Workers’ District Council workers, such as hospitals, have begun requiring vaccines. Whenever members complain, the board’s business manager, Phillip Ameris, tells them it’s not the union’s call.
“What we’ve said is‘ we encourage our members to get the vaccine, ’but what we’re telling everyone to do is go to your doctor,” Ameris said. “We are trying not to be a politician. … Go to your doctor and ask your doctor what is best for you. “
Some of the hottest oppositions come from the unions of the order. On Thursday in Newark, police and fire unions across New Jersey protested against the mayor’s vaccine mandate outside City Hall. Chicago police unions in Richmond have backtracked on the mandates of their cities. In Portland, Oregon, the local police union got its members exempt from the city’s vaccination order, and a group of police and fire unions are suing Gov. Kate Brown for blocking the vaccine requirement. state for its workers.
Simon Haeder, a political scientist studying vaccine mandates at Penn State University, said it makes sense that the strongest resistance has been from police and firefighters. “The most conservative side of the labor movement, in terms of politics, will be the police and fire unions,” he said, noting that the response to the coronavirus has become very polarized. “Yeah, you’re a union and yes, you want the workplace back to normal, but the identity of being a Republican outweighs a lot of that.”
Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said police officers react like most Americans. “You have, like the rest of the country, very strong feelings on both sides,” Johnson said.
Still, police unions can see the writings on the wall and want to negotiate any mandate through the collective bargaining process, Johnson said. “From a union perspective there is a feeling that the vaccination policy will be virtually mandatory,” he said. “We want a place at the table when we discuss implementation.”
Campos-Medina said compulsory vaccination is such an obvious public health policy that it is important that he waits for unions to finally accept it. He compared it to the ban on indoor smoking, which collapsed some unions years ago, but which is an issue that almost never comes up at the negotiating table. “We’ll get there,” he said.
The Weingarten union had initially opposed, like Biden, the vaccination mandates and said convincing workers to receive the shots was a better approach. But after the delta variant increased the number of cases this summer and filled hospital beds, AFT reconsidered.
She also believes that almost all unions will unite behind a pro-mandate position. But, he points out, it will take time.
“The leadership of the unions I’m talking to knows that vaccines are really important,” Weingarten said. “What they are trying to do is balance all these services and responsibilities that we have in front of our members.”
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Associated Press writers Josh Boak in Washington and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.