Several current and former York City workers stood in front of City Hall on Wednesday morning to support Councilmember Vickie Paladino’s announcement of a legislative package. One of the main purposes of the councilwoman’s proposed legislation is to change the negative impact New York workers can have when government mandates are established during a state of emergency.
The new legislation is in response to the city mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for public sector workers during the pandemic. When public workers began to work in person again, the city government required them to be vaccinated by October 29, 2021. Failure to do so would result in them losing their job or being placed on unpaid leave. As a result of this mandate, thousands of city workers were left without a job.
The City Hall steps were filled with dozens of city employees who had lost their jobs just over a hundred people, many from the advocacy group Teachers for Choice, that which opposes forced medical mandates on workers.
Josephine Valdez, former educator, and now activist, remembers receiving a letter in October 2021 signed by the principal at the school where she taught in the Bronx, saying that she could not return to her position unless she planned on complying with the city’s mandate. Valdez recalled skimming through the letter and feeling uneasy. She had intentionally hidden her vaccination status from her students, but now, everything was out in the open.
“I left the school that day after I finished [reading the letter] in tears,” said Valdez.
Carla Findlay, another former educator who attended the press conference, taught at a private school. While the mandate did not affect her job, it affected her son’s place in school. Jay Findlay, who is now 11, no longer had a place to be educated when the administration found out that he was not fully vaccinated. Carla submitted a religious exemption form on behalf of her son, but it was denied, and she decided to leave the school with him.
“I came here [today] because I thought this was something that was just our fight,” said Findlay. “But it’s a fight for choice. Everybody should have the right to choose.”
Findlay eventually resorted to creating her own curriculum and homeschooling her son.
She hopes that Paladino’s efforts to ensure people’s jobs and livelihoods will not be dependent on their medical decisions will go beyond City Hall’s steps.
Paladino’s legislative package also requests that the governor signs an extension to make local emergency orders a concern of the local governing body, and not the state’s.
Additionally, the package calls for the New York City’s Mayor, Eric Adams, and the city’s Education Department to establish scientific criteria that will emphasize mental health checks before mandating mask-wearing for school children. If this package is approved, the department would also be responsible for issuing monthly reports that contain a justifiable reason for issuing a mask mandate with consideration for mental health repercussions.
This package will first go to a subcommittee of the NYC council to be voted on, and if approved, it will then be considered by the general council.
The councilwoman says that Mayor Adams supports her cause and according to her chief of staff, Nicole Kiprilov, “The minority delegation at the council has been working with the Adams administration to lift mandates for workers.”
Mayor Adams’ office did not respond to inquiries about his support for Paladino’s legislative package.
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