The heads of the city’s two firefighters’ unions demanded Saturday that Mayor Eric Adams lift the COVID-19 mandate for their members.
Adams on Thursday revoked the vaccine requirement for athletes and performers, leading to an outcry from city workers, some of whom lost their jobs rather than get jabbed and others who are still waiting to hear about exemptions.
Lt. James McCarthy, president of the FDNY-Fire Officers Association, said he applauded the mayor’s move to lift the restriction for the players and performers coming to the Big Apple to work.
“We insist that it be extended to the people that work in New York City for New York City,” McCarthy said. “When the stages went dark and the games ended two years ago, we still came to work.”
FDNY-Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro said both unions are calling on the mayor to sit down with them.
“If you’re going to remove the vaccine mandate for certain people in the city, you need to remove it for everybody in the city,” Ansbro said.
Adams has argued that allowing unvaccinated athletes to play in the city, including Nets star Kyrie Irving, was important to the Big Apple’s financial comeback.
Ansbro said there was also a cost to firing city workers and having to replace them.
Between 400 and 500 uniformed firefighters, and more than 120 in the officers’ union, are unvaccinated and waiting to hear about exemptions or accommodations that would allow them to keep working, according to the unions.
About 1,400 city workers have been fired for refusing to comply with the mandate.
The union heads said they were exploring legal options.
When announcing the break for the athletes and performers, Adam said he was not contemplating rehiring the terminated city workers. He has since said he was done talking about vaccines.
When asked Saturday about the vaccine requirement still being in place for first responders, he said, “Listen I’ve talked about that several times….I’m done with that.”
“Look at my previous comments and understand my positions. They’re very clear. I’m not going to keep talking about that over and over again. I have a city to run,” Adams said.