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Newton mayor says six employees were fired or quit over vaccine mandate, all the rest are now vaccinated or granted exemptions
By adamg on Fri, 01/21/2022 - 4:59pm
In e-mail to residents, Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller reported today:
Today, 100% of the City of Newton’s 884 permanent municipal employees joined the employees of the Newton Public Schools and are complying with our vaccination policy. This policy had a final deadline of Friday, Jan. 14, 2021. ...
I am so pleased that no City side employees are on paid administrative leave pending disciplinary action and only two non-union employees chose not to comply with the vaccine requirement and were separated from their employment with the City. In addition, approximately four employees opted to resign or retire because of our policy. ...
Of our 884 permanent municipal employees, 790 are vaccinated and in compliance; 43 employees are in the process of being fully vaccinated or have a pending exemption request; 51 employees had their exemption request reviewed and approved.
Once the pending employees come into full compliance, we expect that 95% of our City employees will be vaccinated, thus matching the extraordinarily high vaccination rate of our residents.
Fuller said that employees who were granted exemptions for medical reasons or "sincerely held religious beliefs" have to wear a mask while on the job and undergo weekly Covid-19 testing.
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Comments
this is my surprised face
We stayed in close touch with all the leaders of our unions who worked with us to protect the health of their members and our community. They consistently showed their commitment to public service and public health. All but one of our unions chose to sign a memorandum of agreement on the vaccine requirement, including the Newton Municipal Nurses Association, the International Association of Firefighters Local 863, the Newton Police Superior Officers Association, AFSCME Council 93 Local 3092-3092B City Hall Associates and Inspectors, Local 2443 Foreman, Local 1703 Engineers and Local 2913 Parking Control/Traffic Supervisors, and the Teamsters Local 25.
One of our unions, the Newton Police Association, chose not to join the other unions in signing agreements with the City on the vaccine requirement.
You just don't hear from the unions that did the right thing.
They don't make the headlines. Good to see this (partial!) list of unions that said "hey, sure, let's make sure we've got a fair agreement" and signed an agreement.
But of course it was one of the police unions that was the odd one out.
To Protect and to Serve...
Themselves.
F EM!
F EM!
screw religious beliefs
Aside from being nonsense (not a single religion endorses anti-vaccination stances, most are ordering their clergy not to grant waivers), public health overrides whatever people think their magical sky god wants them to do.
Separate church and state.
G-D First Amendment
Surely the Founding Fathers wanted the state to trample the religious beliefs of people. No lovers of religious dissenters they were.
Not true - see Washington's letter to RI synagogue
As President, George Washington wrote a letter to the Touro Synagogue very explicitly stating: "May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid."
https://www.tourosynagogue.org/history-learning/gw-letter
By your "logic"
A pork processing plant shouldn't process pork because it is not kosher or halal.
Also, a pharmacist who joins a religion that is anti-medication should be allowed to sit out their shift.
There are limits.
Um, no
But by your logic Jews and Muslims can be forced to process pork.
So who's stopping anyone's religious beliefs?
Oh, this again. Listen to the sound of those imaginary circus ponies trampling on religious beliefs! You know they've got to be imaginary circus ponies because that's what religious beliefs are: imaginary. They exist in someone's head, and it is not possible for the Founding Fathers (who of course could do no wrong) or the modern government or anyone else to "trample" on them.
If people's religious convictions, which no one else can curb or prevent (and frankly no one wants to), cause them to behave in dangerous or antisocial ways, and moreover to feel entitled to do so, they should expect to be curbed in the former and disabused of the latter.