IAFF & Covid: Member Choice
Abandoning the Covenant of Protection
FDNY’s two IAFF affiliates, the Uniformed Firefighters Association (UFA) and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association (UFOA) will head to the Mayor’s official residence on Thursday to express opposition to the Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
According to the UFOA,
“We are requesting all off duty members to attend to show support for those who choose not to be vaccinated as well as to support the UFOA’s right to collectively bargain every change to workplace rules.”
Their call to action wraps Covid-19 vaccine denial in a call for unity and a defense of collective bargaining, as if exposing others to a fatal disease builds a strong union.
But unions exist to protect members, ignoring that bedrock principle to accommodate oddball dissent is a fateful decision.
Abandoning the covenant of protection will have serious repercussions.
It is a short term tactic that’s a strategic disaster for the future.
Why?
So called “vaccine choice” introduces the idea that crucial workplace protections are not a worker right with a moral obligation but rather subject to a member’s individual whims and notions.
The science may show that adequate staffing, seat restraints, breathing apparatus and protective equipment lowers firefighter injuries and fatalities but what about member choice?
Or, for that matter, “management choice” because if organized labor can go soft on health and safety, so can the bosses.
As a union rep, I can remember fighting for our members to receive the Hepatitis B vaccine; now our union fights against disease protection in a pandemic which has killed millions.
The New York Times points out that cops are suing over the mandate despite the fact that Covid-19 is by far the leading cause of on-duty related deaths; it’s hard to believe that fire and EMS are any different.
Political cowardliness by weak-kneed union leaders means actual deaths now and a diminished IAFF in the future.
