In a very unsurprising turn of events, the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union (MCOFU) plans to sue the Baker administration after it issued its vaccination mandate on August 19.
The vaccination mandate reads: “Today, Governor Charlie Baker issued an executive order requiring all Executive Department employees to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination on or before October 17, 2021. The COVID-19 vaccine is the best and most effective way people can protect themselves, their loved ones and their community from the virus.” This includes correction officers, state police, parole personnel and “any agency, bureau, department, office, or division of the Commonwealth within or reporting to such an executive office of the commonwealth.”
MCOFU, in a letter to its union members, i.e. all state correctional officers, wrote that “it is an individual choice for each person, uniformed or civilian, whether they choose to receive (the vaccine).”
Anthony Benedetti, Chief Counsel for the Committee for Public Council Service, which provides legal representation for those unable to afford an attorney in all matters in which the law requires the appointment of counsel, tweeted a significant phrase in the MCOFU letter. He wrote, “The Massachusetts Correction Officers’ Federated Union, which represents guards and officials in the state’s prison system, said it ‘does not agree with a forced vaccination’ and is pursuing legal options against the governor’s office.
They stated their intentions to sue the Baker administration in the following way: “The MCOFU Executive Board has begun the process of pursuing all legal and legislative remedies at our disposal, up to and including an injunction in court.”
In February, 2021, I asked the question WHY ARE HALF OF MASS CORRECTION OFFICERS REFUSING THE COVID VACCINE? in an article for DigBoston, which was the first in Massachusetts to report this issue.
The answer, at the time, still holds true: “Even as the pandemic rages in prisons, vaccines and masks are seen as ‘a sign of weakness’. While COVID was raging, 53% of DOC staff and correctional officers (COs) “refused the vaccine.”
As I reported, “According to state data from a Feb. 10 Special Master’s Report, commissioned to fairly assess the situation from all angles, 3,074 DOC employees, or more than half the staff who work for the DOC, have “refused” the vaccine. Some of the COs possibly got the vaccine elsewhere, DOC’s attorney Stephen Dietrich said at the Feb. 9 hearing, although he did not disclose any numbers.” That information is still the same today per the latest August report.
Baker’s August 19 announcement said, “Executive Department employees who are not vaccinated or approved for an exemption as of October 17, 2021 will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”