Gov. Charlie Baker says he's not concerned that the State Police won't have enough manpower after the troopers' union complained that his COVID-19 vaccine mandate is unfair.
The State Police Association of Massachusetts (SPAM) released a statement to the press saying that Baker and his administration haven't done enough to work with the union to inform members about religious and medical exemptions to the mandate, which went into effect Monday for all state employees under Baker's executive control.
"Our concern is based in the lack of fundamental fairness and the Administrations' consistent efforts to undermine the processes by which organized labor secures the rights of its members," the SPAM statement read.
Baker told reporters just over 90% of all state troopers have attested to being vaccinated or have formally requested an exemption on religious or medical grounds, and that the "vast majority" of those seeking exemptions are being tested for the virus.
The governor wouldn't go into specifics about when any state employees would be punished or terminated for not being vaccinated, but said he was confident the State Police's mission won't be jeopardized if some troopers need to be replaced.
"We have a class that's graduating, I think, next week. And we'll make sure that we do what we need to do to make sure that they continue to perform the duties that they're expected to perform. I'm not concerned about that," Baker said.
The union claimed that Baker's administration had not returned any requests for exemptions, even though the deadline he set had arrived.
"Though we are beyond the deadline, we have not received even one reply to the several hundred medical and/or religious exemption requests that were submitted," the union wrote.
The statement said Baker's lack of response to the requests left troopers and their families with "looming questions and an unconscionable and unnecessary level of stress and worry."
Baker said "there's been an ongoing dialogue since August with all of the unions," along with "a process in place for processing exemptions." Baker said exemption begins with the agency itself before going though the executive office's central human resources office.
Baker wouldn't say when the state will start suspending or terminating employees that don't comply with the vaccine mandate.
"Our goal here is to make sure we connect with everybody who hasn't already attested and find out exactly what their story is before we make any decisions about stuff like that," Baker said.
The state police union sought to effectively delay the mandate in court in September, arguing a labor-law case that the terms need to be negotiated with the union before it went into effect, but the judge did not grant an injunction.
Baker also said he hadn't needed to assign any National Guard troops to replace corrections officers in the state's prisons. The governor called up 250 guards last week to train to secure corrections facilities in case the mandate caused staffing shortages, but Baker said no National Guard troops are working in state prisons in place of state employees.
"Everybody came to work," Baker said.
