Chicago City Wire

Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, Jr. announced the Illinois Labor Relations Board has sided with city workers against mandatory Covid vaccinations, noting any employees fired by the city must be reinstated with backpay.

“Today's a great day for labor in Chicago and the state of Illinois,” Catanzara said in a video. “The Illinois Labor Relations Board just issued a ruling on behalf of AFSCME and Coop who filed a complaint over the city's COVID policy, just like we did back in 2021. They have their hearing completed, obviously, and the administrative law judge ruled that the city needs to take away all discipline that's been imposed because of that policy, and reinstate any terminated employees with full back pay and 7% interest for any loss. They're to be made whole - salary, benefits, and everything.”

While the city has the opportunity to appeal, it is a victory for the City of Chicago employees.  

“It's a pretty resounding win for labor in this city and state," Catanzara added. "We also had a labor board case that was slated to be heard on all of these same issues in July of this year. Ours was postponed because of a legal fight that we took to court over the arbitration decision by George Romell. But again, where that leaves our case, there's no reason to really even have it, because these are all the same issues and I congratulate them on being first to that finish line. We decided to go to the courtroom first, but we'll update as we go forward what that means for our members specifically. The city has 30 days to basically file for exceptions to this ruling. We'll see if they do it. Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson is championing union rights. While this is his first true test, are they going to challenge the labor board ruling? Or are they just going to accept it, move on and do the right thing on behalf of all union members in this city?” 

Administrative law judge Anna Hamburg-Gal made the ruling on behalf of the Illinois Labor Relations Board. The city of Chicago will have 30 days to appeal the ruling which will go to the agency’s board for review.

"We think it’s a strong decision and favorable for worker rights generally," Anders Lindall, told The Chicago Sun-Times. "At issue in this case is whether an employer has an obligation to bargain over significant changes to terms and conditions of employment.”

Lindall is a spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). 

The ruling comes as Pfizer was revealed to have lobbied organizations to coerce those hesitant into receiving the vaccine which has been proven ineffective in stopping transmission of Covid, according to reporting from Lee Fang. The Chicago Urban League - which received $100,000 from Pfizer - was one of those entities lobbied by Pfizer to get out Covid messaging. 

“The health and safety factor here far outweighs the concern about shutting people out or creating a barrier,” Karen Freeman-Wilson, president of the Chicago Urban League, said on WTTW in August 2021.

In 2021, nearly a third of the city’s police officers refused to upload their vaccine status to a city portal after the City of Chicago mandated vaccination. At the time Cantanzara called Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot a “dictator who is hell bent on total control over everything.” Cantazara noted in the heat of the moment that the city’s most powerful public sector unions were against the Covid vaccine portal. He said Lightfoot and city officials were overlooking the science by not allowing those who have antibodies from having already contracted Covid, in some cases several times, according to Chicago City Wire.