OCT 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 10.1

As the deadline looms, there are
still no answers from the city
To
We have been working very
hard on the latest “mandate”
from the mayor. The very first
time we heard about the mayor
wanting to have vaccine mandates
was during a weekly City
Council meeting when he stated
that he was looking into all city
employees get vaccinated. We
immediately began to research
if this was legal, and what we
could do to prevent it. Our attorneys
reached out to the Labor
Relations Institute and found
that there was case law and
actual Supreme Court rulings on
this, though the Supreme Court
case was 1905. I
believed that there
must be other
case law out that
would prevent this
from taking place.
We do have constitutional
rights,
right?
I know we have
all paid very close
attention to the
Methodist Employee
case. The
ruling from the court was that
they can be fired for refusing
the vaccine. I felt that this must
have been because they are a
private business, but its not. The
Minnesota State Police just lost
their case against the state of
Minnesota over a full vaccine
mandate. I continued to speak
with the head attorney with the
LRIS, and he provided case after
case in which the employer has
won in court over vaccine mandates.
We then reached out and
had a long discussion with the
mayor and city legal. The mayor
agreed to give us the option
of vaccination or testing twice
a month. As much as we hate
the testing component, we hate
being told to vaccinate more.
We were all surprised by the
mayor’s mandate came out
saying that city employees had
to get the test on their own time
and at their cost. Obviously, we
completely disagree with this
mandate. Our attorneys along
with the LRIS attorney believe
that this is a contract issue and
that we may have to file a contract
grievance as like any other
DOUGLAS GRIFFITH
mandated activity like drug
testing, it must be on duty and
free to employees.
Though, I am involved
in the Moderna Study
and have been vaccinated,
I completely and
firmly believe that is an
individual right and no
one should be forced to
receive the vaccine. This
fight is not over, and
we continue to work
with the Attorney Generals
office as well as
our attorneys to protect
our members rights. As of
today, there is still no “portal” to
upload our information, and the
city still does not know how or
where testing will be….
To be continued……
102 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 103