NYPD, FDNY, and sanitation workers face unpaid leave if they refused to get vaccinated

New York could be left with a serious shortage of firefighters, sanitation workers and cops from Friday – the deadline for Mayor de Blasio’s vaccine mandate.

The NYPD, NYFD and the city sanitation department have warned New Yorkers to brace for slow emergency response times, nearly 40 percent of the city’s firehouses having to close down, and mountains of garbage piling up on sidewalks.

A last legal bid by the NYPD’s largest union to prevent de Blasio’s vaccine mandate was shot down by Staten Island’s Richmond County Supreme Court Judge Lizette Colon on Wednesday.

Seventy-three percent of the NYPD’s 56,000 staff have already received the vaccine, but sanitation workers reported a vaccination rate of just 63percent.

Well behind is the FDNY, with 45percent of its employees yet to be inoculated. 

The NYPD, NYFD and the city sanitation department have warned New Yorkers to brace for slow emergency response times, nearly 40 percent of the city’s firehouses having to close down, and mountains of garbage piling up on sidewalks. Pictured is FDNY Firefighter Association President Andrew Ansbro

‘The response times are going to go through the roof. We’re just not going to be able to get to the emergencies in time,’ said Ansbro

Municipal workers of the city march across Brooklyn bridge and rally at City Hall Park against vaccination mandate in New York on October 25

City employees have until 5pm on Friday to receive their first vaccination – and will be given a $500 bonus.

Those who refuse taking the vaccine will be placed on leave without pay.

The Police Benevolent Association has said it will appeal the ruling once again on Thursday, as the mayor’s mandate is set to take place on November 1.

However, it will be enforced next Monday, allowing employees to report to work during the weekend.

The president of the Police Benevolent Association blamed city officials for the possible egregious outcome of the ruling on Wednesday.

‘The PBA will continue to fight the fight and will immediately appeal this ruling, but New Yorkers should know who to blame for any shortfall in city services: Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner Shea and the other bureaucrats who are putting politics before public health and public safety.’

‘Today’s ruling sets the city up for a real crisis. The haphazard rollout of this mandate has created chaos in the NYPD,’ the statement read. 

City employees have until 5pm on Friday to receive their first vaccination – and will be given a $500 bonus following Mayor Bill de Blasio’s mandate 

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea encouraged officers to receive the vaccine before the time is up

‘We need you out there. Please take advantage of the next few days and get vaccinated,’  Shea told officers 

Across Staten Island and Brooklyn, mountains of trash have already started to pile up as sanitation workers protest the mandate

In neighborhoods like Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge and Staten Island’s Dongan Hills, Saturday’s and Wednesday’s pick-ups did not take place

Sixty-six percent of the population in the US is vaccinated against COVID-19

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea encouraged officers to receive the vaccine before the time is up.

‘We need you out there. Please take advantage of the next few days and get vaccinated,’ he said.

COVID-19, now the leading cause of death for law enforcement in the country, has taken the life of 63 officers in New York.

Meanwhile, FDNY Firefighter Association President Andrew Ansbro has said that chaos will ensue as hundreds of firefighters who have not complied with the mandate will be forced to stop working.

‘The staffing just is not there, there’s no way to do it,’ he told FOX’s radio host Brian Kilmeade.

‘The response times are going to go through the roof. We’re just not going to be able to get to the emergencies in time.’

‘Fires are going to burn longer. Heart attack victims are going to be laying on the floor longer,’ he added. ‘People in stuck elevators are going to be stuck there for hours if not days.’

Ansbro also said that 30 to 40percent of the firehouses in the city will have to close.

‘The mayor is going to be faced with either sending us home or sticking to his guns. And his guns are going to get New York City residents killed.’

Meanwhile, FDNY Firefighter Association President Andrew Ansbro has said that chaos will ensue as hundreds of firefighters who have not complied with the mandate will be forced to stop working

‘The mayor is going to be faced with either sending us home or sticking to his guns. And his guns are going to get New York City residents killed,’ Ansbro said 

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio imposed a mandate starting Nov. 1 that all municipal workers, including NYPD officers, FDNY, Sanitation workers and teachers recieve the COVID-19 vaccine or risk losing pay

The mandate has sparked criticism as some city employees refuse to get the vaccine against COVID-19

Across Staten Island and Brooklyn, mountains of trash have already started to pile up as sanitation workers protest the mandate.

According to The New York Post, they are purposely taking part in a slowdown so collections are not finished.

The president of Teamsters Local 831, a union that represents sanitation workers, Harry Nespoli, sided with the passive protests.

‘Look, you’re going to have some spots in the city that they feel very strongly about this,’ he told The Post.

‘I’ll tell you straight out, I disagree with the mandate because of one reason. We have a program in place right now in the department, which is, you get the vaccination or you get tested once a week.’

Nespoli added that vaccination amongst workers was already going up on a regular basis. ‘In the last five days, we had 300 more that got vaccinated,’ he said.

In neighborhoods like Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge and Staten Island’s Dongan Hills, Saturday’s and Wednesday’s pick-ups did not take place.

Sanitation has also reported piles of garbage in Dyker Heights, Fort Hamilton, Bath Beach, Gravesend, Bensonhurst, and Flatbush, among other neighborhoods.

The are currently more than 45 million cases of COVID-19 in the US. More than 700,000 have died since the pandemic started