As we have previously noted, with the vaccine mandates imposed by various governments, some enterprising nurses were selling faked COVID-19 vaccination cards while other people stole blank vaccination cards.

Philadelphia was one of the cities which mandated vaccinations for its employees, and continues to enforce them even though it has become clear that vaccination, while it seems to reduce symptoms, has virtually no effect on preventing people from either contracting the virus, or spreading it if they do contract it.

Philly has started placing unvaccinated city workers on leave. Here’s how the numbers break down.

More than 20% of the city’s Fire Department and 15% of the Police Department requested exemptions for religious or medical reasons.

by Anna Orso^[1]One thing about Miss Orso’s article: at 992 words, it proves my point about newspapers, at least in their online articles, no longer need to be concerned with word or column inch restrictions! | Thursday, July 14, 2022

Philadelphia city officials placed about 270 workers on leave this month for failing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and more than 1 in 6 of the city’s public-safety employees requested to be exempt.

The employees placed on leave are a fraction of the city’s unionized workforce of more than 22,000. The majority are from two departments: the Prisons Department and the Fire Department, both of which are already short staffed amid a broader labor shortage, according to data provided by Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration.

More than 5% of the unionized employees in the Prisons Department were placed on leave, and nearly 4% of the Fire Department’s unionized force — which includes firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs — are on leave as well, the data show.

The mandate, which was first announced in November and was long delayed while the city hashed out agreements with its municipal unions, required workers to either receive at least one dose of the vaccine or request an exemption on medical or religious grounds by June 30.

So, with the Fire Department already short-staffed, Mayor Jim Kenney, who has helped lead Philadelphia into record homicide numbers, had forced another 4% of its unionized workers off the job? In order to, as the Mayor put it, “ensure the safety of our employees from the devastating impact of COVID-19,” Philadelphia has put 4% of an already understaffed public safety department out of work. Who, I have to ask, will not make it to Temple University Hospital in time to survive, because the city will now be short more Emergency Medical Technicians in ambulances? Whose house, which might otherwise have been saved, will go up in smoke because of a short-staffed Fire Department?

Firemen and EMTs hold tough positions, but in a city with some very poor people, these short-staffed positions couldn’t find enough people to get trained to take those well-paying union jobs? Firemen in Philly have a nine-month academy paid training program:

The yearly salary for a firefighter recruit in the Fire Academy is $57,773. After graduating the Academy as a firefighter, you receive a pay increase. There are scheduled increases in pay to the present maximum of $80,240 a year.

The average annual salary in the City of Brotherly Love is $64,500, so fireman recruits are getting at least close to that just in training, and with $75.393 putting a worker in the 75^th percentile, Philly firemen can earn more than that number after several years of experience. I wonder how much of that shortfall in recruiting is due to the vaccine mandate?

About 22% of the Fire Department and more than 15% of the Police Department requested exemptions, the highest proportion among the city’s largest departments. It’s significantly higher than, for example, the 8% of workers in the Streets Department who requested exemptions or the 3% in Parks and Recreation.

In other words, the city departments upon which the public depend most for safety are the two departments in which the members were most resistant to taking the COVID vaccines. While I believe that getting vaccinated is the wiser course of action, I also hold that it ought to be the individual’s choice. With the vaccines now having almost no inhibiting effect on either contracting or spreading the virus, but the Mayor wants to hold onto his authoritarian dictate.

It would be amusing to know how many Philly city employees have resorted to faked or forged vaccination cards.

An obvious question: what would happen if the unionized firemen decided to go on strike to support their suspended brethren? Were I a Philly fireman, I’d have gotten the vaccine as soon as it was available, which is just what I did as a retired man here in the Bluegrass State. But I’d also be agitating in my fire station to go out on strike to demand the return of those suspended over this.

The 4% of employees placed on leave in the Fire Department is another blow to a department that’s already understaffed and has struggled to fill vacancies amid a broader shortage of municipal workers. There are more than 700 vacancies in the Fire Department, accounting for about 1 in 5 positions that are budgeted for, according to a department spokesperson.

So, in a department already roughly 20% undermanned, the city is suspending 4% of the existing workforce. Just f(ornicating) brilliant, but it demonstrates what we’ve always known: in a major city in which the Democrats hold unchallenged power, it is the thirst for power rather than the good of the city which motivates the elected leadership.

In the Prisons Department, where 5% of the unionized workforce were placed on leave, staffing reached crisis levels months ago. Correctional officers have quit en masse, and staff and prisoners have said short staffing in the jails led to riots, assaults, and deaths.

David Robinson, president of the correctional officers’ union, Local 159 of AFSCME District Council 33, said he’s worried placing workers on leave as the department is trying to hire will exacerbate safety issues in the jails and is “playing a dangerous game.”

Robinson said he encouraged employees placed on leave to file appeals. He said forcing employees to take unpaid time off or use accrued time due to their vaccination status is “punishing” essential workers, many of whom showed up consistently through the pandemic.

Hey, no biggie! District Attorney Larry Krasner doesn’t want anybody in jail anyway, so just release ’em all!

Just think about this. Philadelphia, our nation’s sixth-largest city, and the poorest of our nation’s ten most populous cities, and the only major city with a poverty rate above 20%, can’t attract enough people for good, union-wage and union-protected positions as it is, yet they’re going to fire more of their good workers, including those who showed up for work, every day, during the height of the panicdemic.

Yeah, the firemen need to go on strike. Just for one day, to show Mayor Kenney who’s really the boss.