Massachusetts’ strictest in the nation vaccine mandate, already causing shortages of workers, poses the biggest political risk yet for Gov. Charlie Baker.
With unions issuing court challenges and state agencies like the police dealing with the loss of hundreds of workers, Baker will be blamed if it all goes horribly wrong.
And for Baker, there’s nowhere to hide. If he runs for re-election next year, the worker shortages will come in the middle of his campaign, and it could easily turn into a disaster.
What Boston’s Acting Mayor Kim Janey decided can easily be undone by the next mayor, but Baker will not get a second chance.
You can’t call out the National Guard for everything. They’re already doing jobs they aren’t trained for like driving school buses and guarding prisons.
Enforcing vaccine mandates on private-sector workers is hard enough. It’s much more difficult to jam these vaccine mandates on public sector agencies and their powerful unions.
Two unions have already gone to the courts to overturn the mandates. The State Police Association lost its initial court request, and the outcome was the same Friday for the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union.
One thing Baker has going in his favor right now is public opinion, which appears to be solidly behind the vaccine mandates. But that may not last if there’s a prison riot that guards can’t handle because they’re not trained. Baker has also gotten generally high marks for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis, but Democrats have begun to take aim at the administration.
It’s one thing to be a tough guy, and another to actually enforce the mandates and deal with the likely worker shortages.
How do you enforce a vaccine mandate that puts 40% of your workforce out of jobs? Many of these workers who refuse to be vaccinated will never come back.
The Massachusetts State Police could be especially hard hit.
Officials insist they have plans in place to deal with the expected loss of troopers.
“The Massachusetts State Police continue to encourage personnel to comply with the (vaccine) requirement,” a spokesman said. “If necessary due to non-compliance with Executive Order 595, the department has plans in place to deploy personnel as needed to ensure continued police services and protection of public safety.”
Hundreds of workers are also seeking exemptions from the COVID-19 mandate, with the state saying in a memo 44,000 workers have either taken the vax or applied for an exemption. It’s unclear if those exemptions will be granted.
