Boston police

Boston Police Union Votes Down Vaccine Agreement

The union says around 93 percent of its members are vaccinated

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The largest union in the Boston Police Department voted against a proposed agreement with the city that would have had them accept the vaccine mandate.

The Boston Police Patrolman’s Association says that 900 of its 1,600 members voted against accepting Mayor Michelle Wu's vaccine mandate.

The mayor’s office vaccine mandate is set to go into effect Monday after being pushed back twice. All city employees are supposed to have at least one dose of the vaccine or they will be put on unpaid leave.

Boston firefighters protested the mandate at the mayor’s press conference this week, where they announced they were filing for another injunction to stop it.

The unions have argued this mandate violates their collective bargaining agreements. Under Mayor Kim Janey, they had agreed members could test weekly instead of getting the vaccine.

At the negotiating table -- the police patrolman's union wanted mental health and wellness day and to freeze the mandate on the booster shot.

The mayor released a statement saying in part, "it’s deeply disappointing that a fringe group pushing conspiracy theories and anti-vax ideology has undermined the collective bargaining process. We will continue taking strong steps to protect the health and safety of all our residents during the pandemic."

They said the mayor’s office did make concessions about letting members who later decide to get vaccinated to come back to their job, they union says it wasn’t enough.

The union says around 93 percent of its members are vaccinated.

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