Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is suing the city's police union and its president after they she says they threatened a walk-out over her vaccine mandate.
Lightfoot recently mandated that all civic employees, including 13,000 Chicago police officers, get vaccinated and report their status to the city by today, or face unpaid leave.
But head of the Chicago Branch of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) John Catanzara told cops to ignore the mandate and even hinted out a potential strike as he threatened that the city could be left without half or less of its regular officers 'this week and coming up'.
'That is 100 percent because of the mayor's unwillingness to budge from her hard line,' he said.
No officers will actually be axed from their jobs on Friday because it will take time for the city's government to sort out who got vaccinated, according to ABC 7,
A day before the deadline Lightfoot ordered the law department to file a complaint against the FOP and Catanzara to prevent a strike.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (left) has sued the city's police union and its president over their refusal to report their vaccination status by today. Head of the Chicago Branch of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) John Catanzara (right) told cops to ignore Lightfoot's mandate and even hinted out a potential strike as he threatened that the city could be left without half or less of its regular officers 'this week and coming up'
Lightfoot said that the FOP and the city of Chicago will reach a 'collective bargaining agreement'.
'We have a profession that nobody wants to work in. It gave us a little bit stronger position. You can't lay off or get rid of thousands of cops because you'll never replace them. We can't even replace what we got now,' he said on Fox News on Thursday.
Although no one will be put on leave today, the worry is that once Lightfoot knows who got vaccinated and who didn't, many police officers will be sent home and leave the city without officers, according to ABC 7.
'Once we understand that people have not complied with the simple request to say "yes" or "no" or that I'm going to take the testing option then yes, we will be moving forward and putting people into no-pay status,' Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot announced that she filed a Complaint for Injunctive Relief against the police union and Catanzara in a statement on Thursday 'for engaging in, supporting, and encouraging a work stoppage or strike'.
'It’s safe to say the city of Chicago will have a police force at 50 percent or less,' Catranzara said at one point in the vide message he recorded from his desk at the Fraternal Order of Police Union office on the city's West Side
The FOP tweeted in response to Lightfoot's claim that Catanzara is 'engaging in, supporting, and encouraging a work stoppage or strike' (pictured)
In response, the FOP tweeted: 'President John Catanzara has never engaged in, supported, or encouraged a work stoppage.
'Lightfoot is the only one who has said she will send our dedicated Officers home without pay if they choose to reject her unlawful orders,' he added.
The mayor added that she 'cannot and will not stand idly by while the rhetoric of conspiracy theorists threatens the health and safety of Chicago's residents and first responders'.
'President Catanzara has time and again deliberately misled our police officers by lying about the requirements of the policy and falsely claiming that there will be no repercussions if officers are insubordinate and refuse to follow a City and Department directive or order.
'Notably Catanzara has urged officers to reject the City's vaccine policy and has repeatedly instructed police officers to refuse to comply with the City's lawful directive which requires all City employees to report their Covid-19 vaccination status by October 15. By doing so, and by predicting that 50 percent or more officers will violate their oaths and not report for duty, Catanzara is encouraging an unlawful strike and work stoppage which carries the potential to undermine public safety and expose our residents to irreparable harm, particularly during an ongoing pandemic,' the statement read.
It added: 'This action is brought pursuant to the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and Illinois common law which prohibits sworn officers from engaging in a strike.'
Citywide, 63.7 percent of Chicagoans have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine (pictured), meaning 1.7million people - out of a population of 2.7million - are completely unvaccinated, according to data from Chicago's Coronavirus Response Center
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