* AFSCME Council 31 memo to state employee members…

Important Updates for State Employees

Rigid Mandate Won’t Work

More and more employers are turning to vaccination mandates in the epic battle to contain the spread of COVID-19. Tyson Foods and United Airlines are the latest Illinois-based companies to announce that employees must get vaccinated or be fired.

This week Governor Pritzker took a step down that road, announcing that vaccinations would be required for all employees in the state’s congregate facilities in DOC, DHS, DVA and DJJ, citing emergency conditions that not only jeopardize employee health, but that of individuals in the state’s custody or care.

The governor left open how this requirement would be implemented, stating that the details would be worked out in bargaining with the unions representing state employees. AFSCME has already contacted CMS to initiate those negotiations.

AFSCME has already made clear to the Administration that our union opposes a rigid, universal vaccination mandate. Our fundamental priority is to protect the lives and health of every union member and the people they serve. That’s why, since the first availability of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, AFSCME has worked to educate and encourage union members to be vaccinated in order to protect themselves, their families, co-workers and communities.

We have been working collaboratively with state agencies over the past months to increase vaccination rates and reduce the incidence of COVID in veterans’ homes, correctional facilities and care centers. And those efforts have been making steady progress.

In fact, in many of these state facilities vaccination rates now exceed those in the surrounding communities. More importantly, the numbers of COVID cases have declined dramatically in every one of these settings. In fact, some facilities have had no new cases at all—even with the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant.

In other words, the combination of education about vaccine efficacy, rigorous testing, and appropriate protective measures, such as masking, has in fact been highly effective in reducing the spread of the virus in these facilities. Moreover, it is clear that the impacted agencies could do much more to contain the virus through such proactive measures.

First and foremost, they could reverse the extremely irresponsible plan to terminate what’s been called “COVID time” which our union strongly opposes (see more information below).

Vaccinations should not be seen as punitive measures, but rather as protective ones. AFSCME believes that more time and effort are needed to raise vaccination rates through voluntary action. There’s a need for more education—both about the highly reliable science on which the vaccines are based and about the threat that unvaccinated individuals pose to others—as well as incentive programs that have greatly increased vaccination rates in other sectors.

Before its recent action to institute a vaccination mandate, United Airlines already had a 90% vaccination rate among its pilots and an 80% vaccination rate among flight attendants. One factor credited with this strong uptake is an agreement reached with the airline’s unions for an additional day off for all vaccinated employees.

Employees in the state’s congregate facilities have been on the job every day throughout this pandemic, putting their own health and safety at risk to assure public safety and care for vulnerable individuals. In addition to the danger posed by the coronavirus, they have continued to face the dangers posed daily by assaults from patients and offenders and other constant stressors in the workplace. Just over the past few weeks, a nurse at Elgin MHC was beaten nearly to death by a patient, several officers at Pontiac CC were sent to the hospital as a result of injuries suffered in an attack by inmates, and an officer at Shawnee CC committed suicide in the facility parking lot.

There are other paths the state could follow that would not serve to increase tensions and stress in the way that a hard mandate would do. President Biden laid out such a path last week for most federal government employees: All employees must either be fully vaccinated OR be regularly tested. In fact, this is the approach that some agencies in state government are already taking. Such a flexible and balanced approach is preferable to a rigid universal vaccination requirement—and AFSCME will fight for it in the negotiations set to get underway.

Don’t End COVID Time-Off Policy!

Over AFSCME’s strong objections, the State intends to proceed with its plan to end “COVID Time” effective Monday, August 9. The COVID Time policy allows individuals who contract COVID-19 (or are under a health department quarantine) to have paid time off without using their own benefit time.

Under the revised policy, employees will have to use their own benefit time if they become sick with COVID and would have the option of filing a workers’ compensation claim to recoup that time.

AFSCME believes that “COVID Time” is a key means of helping to contain COVID outbreaks, especially in congregate settings such as prisons and veterans’ homes.

In a letter to CMS Chief of Labor Relations, Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch stressed that “AFSCME is very concerned that requiring any employee—whether vaccinated or unvaccinated—to use their own benefit time if they contract COVID could contribute to a heightened risk for all employees,” pointing out that employees who do not have any benefit time on the books may end up coming to work sick and infecting their coworkers.

Our union intends to make the restoration of COVID Time a top priority in the negotiations over the proposed vaccination mandate.

Hey, AFSCME. You wouldn’t need COVID Time all that much if your members were vaccinated. But if it gets you to agree to a firm vax mandate, so be it, I suppose.