A judge has now told Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot that the best thing she can do is just sit down and be quiet. I guess he told her a thing or two, that’s for sure!
A Cook County Judge on Monday suspended Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s December 31st deadline for all Chicago law enforcement officers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
As TGP reported, Chicago upped their battle with their police officers over that mandated COVID-19 vaccine, and she issued a statement where she threatened the retirement benefits of officers who are planning on retiring from the force rather than submit to Mayor Lightfoot’s vaccine mandates and reporting system. People have their rights, Lori. This isn’t Nazi Germany (yet).
Lightfoot issued an order back in August that all city employees must be vaccinated by October 15. The deadline was later modified, after objections by the police union, to the end of the year but with a proviso that unvaccinated workers submit to twice-weekly testing at their own expense. All workers must report their vaccine status through an online portal starting this Friday or face being put on no-pay status.
The Associated Press reported:
A judge on Monday suspended a Dec. 31 deadline for Chicago police officers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 but didn’t interfere with a requirement that they be regularly tested.
Disputes over vaccinations should be handled as a labor grievance with an arbitrator, Cook County Judge Raymond Mitchell said.
“The effect of this order is to send these parties back to the bargaining table and to promote labor peace by allowing them to pursue” remedies under Illinois law, Mitchell said.
The grievance process could last months, the city said last week.
Officers who haven’t been vaccinated still must be tested twice a week under city policy. Officers also can lose work and pay if they don’t disclose their vaccine status.
Evidently, the neighboring state of Indiana are now stepping up their efforts to recruit police officers that are disgruntled due to these draconian policies in Cook County and the city of Chicago.