A Boston City Council hearing on Mayor Michelle Wu's employee vaccine mandate is happening Friday morning. It's been a heated topic inside and outside of City Hall.
The City Council is talking about the mayor's mandate, which requires all 19,000 city employees to be vaccinated. There has been an ongoing back and forth between the mayor's office and the city's labor unions. Officials from the mayor's office were invited to testify at Friday's 10 a.m. hearing.
In the meantime, one of those labor groups -- the Boston Teachers Union -- has reached an agreement with the mayor's office that will allow unvaccinated teachers to continue working during periods of low virus transmission if they submit two negative COVID-19 tests.
If transmission rates are high, however, unvaccinated union members will not be allowed in school buildings but will be able to use paid time off.
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“Had we not signed this agreement then those educators would be put on unpaid leave, would not be able to use any accrued time off and would actually then be terminated," said Jessica Tang, president of the Boston Teachers Union.
Ninety-nine percent of teachers who are in the union have been vaccinated.
