Sanitation Workers Neglect Their Duties to Protest Vaccine Mandate for City Workers

By Yehudit Garmaise

    Even before the vaccine mandate for city workers goes into effect, garbage bags have been piling up around Boro Park and throughout the city, and some report that sanitation workers are purposely neglecting to pick up garbage to protest the mandate.

   “On some blocks in Brooklyn, the garbage was picked up on one side of the street, but not the other, so the workers seem to be sending a message,” a reporter pointed out to Mayor Bill de Blasio this morning.

     “We are definitely seeing that problem in some parts of the city, and it is unacceptable,” the mayor acknowledged. “I want to make it really, really clear. 

     “People may not agree with the [vaccine mandate], but this decision it about the health and safety of all New Yorkers. We gave people lots and lots of time to go along voluntarily, and now we are saying, ‘We have a right as the city of New York to ensure the safety of our employees and the safety of our people.’”

     “And every court: state and federal has affirmed that right. So that is the law.

     “There is one way to do things, which is to abide by the law.

      “If you are a city worker, you have to abide by the law, and there will be consequences that will be enforced by Sanitation Commissioner Ed Grayson.” 

      To compensate for the sanitation workers who are neglecting their duties to protest the vaccine mandate, the mayor said, DSNY has cancelled days off for sanitation workers, will be requiring Sunday shifts, as needed, and is moving to a 12-hour schedule.

     “Anyone [in DSNY] who is not doing their job: you are harming your fellow sanitation workers, and you are harming your neighbors, and you are harming the people New York City,” said the mayor, who said he has had a number of conversations with the sanitation unions about the slowdown in service, “and it is time to stop.”

   “There has always been an honest dialogue with the sanitation union leaders, and I appreciate that,” the mayor said. “We see a problem in certain parts of the city. I am assuming it is related to people expressing their views on this new mandate, and I am saying again, ‘That is not fair to your fellow workers, to your neighbors, to your fellow New Yorkers.

     “’You are getting paid. You have to do a job. 

     “If you don’t want to do the job anymore, someone really will want it: I assure you. All of these uniformed service jobs are deeply coveted. They are crucial to us. We depend on them. They are important and fulfilling jobs, and they come with some of the best benefits in the US. People want these jobs.

     “Anyone who doesn’t want to do the job anymore: I know someone else will step up and fill it. 

     “You want to protest, go protest. But when you are on the clock: You have to do your job.”