@nytimes

City officials are bracing for the possibility that thousands of essential workers — including police officers, firefighters and sanitation employees — could be placed on unpaid leave starting Monday. The city’s sweeping mandate requiring that almost all municipal workers receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine takes effect on Monday. But defiance of the mandate is running high among some workers. In a protest outside the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion, on Thursday, many demonstrators wore shirts bearing Fire Department engine and ladder company numbers from across the city. Union leaders led chants of “Hold the line!” and took aim at Mayor Bill de Blasio for ordering vaccinations on what they said was too short a timeline. The mayor, a Democrat in his second term, predicted on Thursday that many city workers would get shots at the last minute, as happened just before similar mandates took effect in recent months for health care workers and school employees. “I am not having second thoughts,” de Blasio said, adding that he was confident the city would not face serious disruptions. Tap the link in our bio to read more about the new mandate that applies to roughly 160,000 city employees at some three dozen agencies. Photos by @jamesestrin

October 29, 2021