* I told subscribers this morning that this was probably coming. Press release…
Governor JB Pritzker today announced Illinois’ first union agreement requiring vaccines for certain state workers in congregate facilities. The agreement covers approximately 260 supervisory employees at the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) which are represented by VR-704. Employees must receive their first shot by October 14, 2021. Should an employee elect a two-dose vaccine, they must receive the second shot by November 18.
State employees who remain unvaccinated pose a significant risk to individuals in the Illinois’ congregate facilities. Therefore, if employees do not receive the vaccine or an exemption by the dates identified, progressive disciplinary measures will be implemented, which may ultimately lead to discharge. The agreement includes a process whereby employees can seek an exemption based on medical contraindications or sincerely-held religious beliefs.
“With new variants among us, the quick spread of COVID-19 in congregate settings in Illinois and across the nation continues to harm the most vulnerable among us,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We have a safe and proven tool to end this pandemic, and vaccination remains the most effective way to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. I’m proud to reach this agreement with these critical labor partners and applaud VR-704 for taking this critical step to combat the virus and keep all of our State residents safe.”
Last month, Governor Pritzker announced that all state workers who work in state run congregate facilities would be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, that includes employees at IDOC and DJJ, the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) and the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA), subject to bargaining. Negotiations between the unions representing the rest of the workforce impacted by this mandate are ongoing.
“When staff take the life-saving vaccine, they are protecting their colleagues, individuals in custody and communities while moving the agency closer to normal operations,” said Rob Jeffreys, Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections. “This commitment will help IDOC overcome the challenges associated with infection control in congregate living environments.”
To further encourage vaccinations under the agreement with VR-704, employees will receive an additional personal day. If the vaccine administration is not available during an employee’s regularly scheduled shift, the employee may be compensated at their regular pay for the time taken to receive the vaccine. In addition, vaccinated employees will receive paid “COVID time,” so that if a vaccinated employee gets COVID-19, or must quarantine due to COVID-19, they will receive a period of paid time off without using their benefit time.
The administration has taken extensive measures to make the COVID-19 vaccine equitable and accessible. The Pritzker administration established 25 mass vaccination sites. The Illinois National Guard supported more than 800 mobile vaccination clinics on top of an additional 1,705 state-supported mobile sites that focused on communities hardest hit by the pandemic, young residents, and rural communities. The COVID-19 vaccine has been available for healthcare and nursing home workers since December 15, 2020, and open to teachers since January 25, 2021.
Vaccination is the key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic and returning to normal life. All Illinois residents over the age of 12 are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at no cost and proof of immigration status is not required to receive the vaccine. To find a vaccination center near you, visit vaccines.gov.
Seems like a deal that, in normal times, AFSCME should’ve been able to live with.
- Blue Dog - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 12:59 pm:
I’m ok with this deal.
- NIU Grad - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 1:02 pm:
This just gave me flashbacks to when the Rauner admin used to release press releases whenever they reached an agreement with a smaller union to try and put pressure on AFSCME. See how that worked out…
- Rich Miller - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 1:07 pm:
===See how that worked out… ===
Yep.
Difference is, AFSCME is clearly and completely on the wrong side of history of this one.
- Inverted Pyramid - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 1:07 pm:
Reminds me of the good old days of September 2015:
“The Rauner administration said Monday it has reached tentative or final agreements on new labor contracts with five groups of Teamsters units representing about 4,600 workers statewide.”
https://capitolfax.com/2015/09/01/teamsters-leader-rauner-admin-compromised-and-gave-concessions-for-fair-agreement/
- Norseman - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 1:13 pm:
Rich Miller +1
- Nicky - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 1:35 pm:
Why aren’t antibodies
Acquired from previous infection not being taken into consideration
- Q - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 1:44 pm:
Am I correct that VR-704 is affiliated with the Laborers?
- illdoc - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 1:49 pm:
CDC recommendation is that even if someone previously had COVID, they should get vaccinated. Proven that it greatly improves immune response.
- Amalia - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 1:57 pm:
you work in a facility with close quarters of lots of people. why in the world would you NOT want to be vaccinated? happy they agreed, but truly wonder why this is a thing.
- Huh? - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:00 pm:
“Why aren’t antibodies
Acquired from previous infection not being taken into consideration”
What part of covid variants don’t you understand?
- Real - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:02 pm:
AFSCME is right. Nobody has to comply in full sync with you people.
- Cermak Dr. - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:03 pm:
From the rumors coming out of the facilities. There has been an huge influx of requests for exemptions. Has there been any definitions on what qualifies? Will there be a signature attached to these exemptions? These are some of my questions if this is true. Sounds like people trying to get out of being vaccinated to me.
- very old soil - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:05 pm:
Real,
Who are “you people”?
- ArchPundit - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:08 pm:
===AFSCME is right. Nobody has to comply in full sync with you people.
Actually they do. See Employment Division v Smith.
- illdoc - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:09 pm:
to Real…..
Please read the history of how the world got rid of smallpox….. vaccinations….
- Rich Miller - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:10 pm:
===you people===
LOL
Must be an IDOC employee.
- Pundent - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:11 pm:
=Why aren’t antibodies
Acquired from previous infection not being taken into consideration=
Because we’re following the guidance of scientists and doctors neither of whom have pointed to this as a reason to forego vaccination. Why would the Governor establish rules that aren’t supported by the scientific community?
- Grateful Gail - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:14 pm:
Our local State Operated Developmental Center was out of isolation/quarantine for all of four days….staff and residents were being tested twice a week. For four days our most vulnerable were able to be off of their cottages, enjoying life in the community,and today, two AFSCME staff tested positive and this affects three cottages, so here we go again. Our loved ones are quarantined to their units, not able to go to their day programs, etc. etc. This is why even twice a week testing does not work. The residents of these homes pay the price. They are quarantined/isolated when staff can go home, and go on with their life. The only way our most vulnerable will once again have their life back to normal is the vaccine. So disappointed in Pritzker and AFSCME for pandering to those who don’t understand the science behind this, or choose not to.
- ArchPundit - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 2:51 pm:
Gail, I’m so sorry. That’s awful. Hang in there.
- MrX - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 3:01 pm:
“ Am I correct that VR-704 is affiliated with the Laborers?”
I believe so. This pretty much covers all supervisors that aren’t wardens, like the Majors in IDOC.
- SomeGuy - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 3:04 pm:
So getting vaccinated gets you an extra personal day plus paid COVID time if you get a breakthrough infection? That’s a pretty generous carrot to go along with stick that is being threatened.
I’m impressed.
- Now I'm down in it. - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 3:20 pm:
It’s strange that the person who wrote this release would use “VR-704″ and not “ISEA Laborers’ Local 2002″. If I didn’t know better (/s), I would assume the Pritzker administration didn’t want to highlight that they cut the deal with mid-level management and not rank-and-file. At least Rauner didn’t even try to wrap it up in a pretty little pro-labor bow.
- AC - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 3:42 pm:
==pretty little pro-labor bow==
Labor unions exist to improve pay, benefits, working conditions, health and safety. Improving health and safety sounds extremely pro-labor to me.
- Iris - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 3:45 pm:
Hats off to JB for negotiating this deal. Many unions are pressuring for twice weekly testing and masking for those employees unable to secure a medical or religious exemption but opposed to the vaccine nonetheless… I’m very happy to see the deal doesn’t include such a provision. And the cost of a personal day pales in comparison to the continued likelihood of infection and exposure, quarantine etc.
- Confusion - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 4:31 pm:
I’d say the AFSCME deal is probably not far on the heels. We just received our Religious and Medical Exemption Forms and instructions on how to submit them via email agency-wide in IDOC. That’s likely why the dates were pushed back because they had to establish how they were going to handle those. And as Honeybear pointed out in a different post, it runs it out past the AFSCME Convention dates.
If we get the same deal as VR704, I will be happy.
- DHS Drone - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 4:45 pm:
I think Confusion is on to something. This seems like a good deal. Plus it moves it back past C31’s convention. I’d prefer it sooner but better late than never.
- JakeFree75 - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 8:11 pm:
I am vaccinated, had a breakthrough infection last month, and had to use 16 of my sick days. Nice deal they got.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 8:34 pm:
===Seems like a deal that, in normal times, AFSCME should’ve been able to live with. ===
The musical zeitgeist of this blog isn’t exactly Rage Against the Machine, but as the Killing in the Name notes, “Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses.”
With the politicization of the vaccine and the geographic location of our corrections facilities being in the areas that were most on board with the kind of campaign message that has been slung by the Trump organization in their efforts to legitimize white nationalism, christian nationalism, and just plain right wing authoritarianism. It is unfortunate by some of this ideas have blossomed among our public servants that have the same rights to bargaining as other employees do.
Is this something that could be fixed? Is this something that could be repaired? Hard to say.
But we should hand it to the Governor’s team. By bargaining over this, something that they didn’t legally have to do they’re playing AFSCME off of it’s own members and some of this right wing nationalists will weaken their own representation in outrage at being unable to achieve what was never possible through collective bargaining in the first place.
Whether or not an employee will get the vaccine is a litmus test. Perhaps it should be the litmus test required to be passed in order to be a public servant in the State of Illinois. This pandemic has clearly demonstrated how much danger our society is in from authoritarian right influences.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 8:35 pm:
===should get a vaccine that doesn’t work?===
Hospitalizations and deaths are lessened with vaccinations.
It’s not a cure, never sold as a cure.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 9:05 pm:
===Problem is politicians are selling it as a cure with these mandates.===
They are not. They are saying to get to a normal, to help hospitals, to save lives, get the vaccine or we’ll mandate it for those reasons, no different than any vaccine folks are required to get to travel abroad, go to college or hold a job.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 9:10 pm:
=== I don’t feel someone’s employment should be threatened, especially when the gov’t is allowing hundreds of thousands into this country through the southern border who are unvaccinated.===
See - wildcat12 -, this is restaurant quality
=== Also, you’ve gotta love the “immigrant super spreaders” narrative. That means these folks recognize that unvaccinated people are a danger. But, apparently, only immigrants who are unvaccinated? These good ol’ unvaccinated Americans are certainly not a threat. Just the unvaccinated coming across our border.===
Anything else?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 9:14 pm:
===hundreds of thousands===
Multiple hundreds of thousands is untrue.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 9:26 pm:
=== per CPB.gov===
Link?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 9:30 pm:
I did find this…
===It is important to note that encounters refer to events, not people, and that some migrants are encountered more than once. In fact, a growing proportion of encounters in recent months have involved repeat border crossers. As a result, the overall number of encounters reported in a given month may overstate the number of distinct individuals involved.===
But, that’s not what is going to decide this.
If those “encounters” are unvaccinated and dangerous, how can those unvaccinated working be “un-dangerous”?
- 3.1415 - Monday, Sep 20, 21 @ 9:49 pm:
“allowing hundreds of thousands into this country through the southern border who are unvaccinated”
“And about 661,000 encounters — more than half of the over 1 million illegal crossings during that time — resulted in immediate expulsions.”
“CBP and policy analysts at immigration organizations have noted that each encounter does not always involve a different person trying to enter the country.”
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/tweets-misrepresent-border-data/
Maybe this is just too “inside baseball” for some commenters.
- DHS Drone - Tuesday, Sep 21, 21 @ 8:21 am:
“ If you’re vaccinated, why do you care if you’re around people who are unvaccinated??”
Because the more this bounces around an unvaxxxed population, the more likely a mutation will emerge that will make the vaccine less effective. Plus not everyone can get the vaccine yet. So the willfully unvaccinated, put those who can’t get the vaccine, at more risk.
- cermak_rd - Tuesday, Sep 21, 21 @ 9:22 am:
Pundent,
And yet Germany is also following the science and they do recognize prior infection. THey have some things that are 3G (tested, vaxed or recovered) and somethings that are 2G(just vaxed or recovered) but they definitely recognize prior infection.
I honestly don’t know why we don’t.
But that being said I don’t know anyone who had COVID who has not also gotten vaccinated. And none of the frothing at the mouth antivaxers are really complaining about that.
- cermak_rd - Tuesday, Sep 21, 21 @ 9:30 am:
Also I have not seen any information about what kind of immunity one acquires if one is treated with monoclonal antibodies. A treatment that I have only heard of in a US context.
- Eastern Bloc Gulag - Tuesday, Sep 21, 21 @ 9:44 am:
Looking forward to AFSCME negotiating a pay increase and an extra personal day for being required to wear a seatbelt while driving a state vehicle…
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 21, 21 @ 9:49 am:
===Looking forward to AFSCME===
Ouch.