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BOP MAY BE ON BACK SIDE OF COVID DELTA BREAKOUT, BUT FIREWORKS ARE COMING ANYWAY…

President Joe Biden’s mandate that all federal employees get vaccinated became effective October 8 (with a November 22 deadline), but you couldn’t tell it from the numbers. Last week, a total of 152 additional BOP employee got the shot, less than a half percent of the workforce. As of last Friday, 67.4% of inmates had been vaxxed, but only 55.6% of BOP workers had received the shot.

The Federal Labor Relations Authority last week denied a temporary restraining order to the union that represents Federal Bureau of Prisons employees to keep the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate from taking effect.

The union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the FLRA regarding the vaccine mandate and requested a temporary restraining order against BOP to prevent implementation of the executive order until the parties negotiate it. Richard Heldreth, mid-Atlantic region vice president for the Council of Prison Locals, told Government Executive magazine that the unfair labor practice charge was not based on “undermining the executive order…but the council is against forced mandates. The union is just “trying to force the agency to bargain,” Heldreth said.

Andy Kline, president of AFL-CIO Local 148, whose members work at Allenwood and Lewisburg, last week accused the Biden administration of failing to bargain with unions over the mandate. “This administration is not union-friendly at all — something they campaigned on,” Kline said. “They came up with a deadline: Whether you have one year in or 30 years in, you’re going to have this vaccination by November or [they are] going to fire you for Christmas… Allowing the union to bargain would have allowed options for staff to get tested instead of vaccinated, allow them the only FDA-approved vaccine and many more possibilities.”

Kline’s union has been picketing along roads leading to Lewisburg and Allenwood. The picketing will expand to a nationwide movement on October 29. (Parenthetically, I had an inmate tell me yesterday that he’d heard a rumor that the entire system would be locked down in October 29 because everyone would be fired for not having the vaccine. I explained that the deadline is November 22, and that the October 29 day is just a planned work stoppage).

Staff resistance to the vaccine is one way to explain the anomalous BOP COVID numbers. Inmate COVID numbers as of yesterday were 172, down 37% from a week ago. Yet staff COVID infection remained more than double that, 454, down only about 3% from a week ago. With inmate recoveries (if that’s what they are), the number of BOP facilities with active COVID should be falling. Yet, the number remains at 103 of 122 facilities, 84% of all BOP prisons.

BOP staff resistance to COVID may provide prisoners seeking COVID compassionate release some traction. A BOP staff made up of those unwilling to be vaccinated carrying the disease into the facility on a daily basis may undermine government claims that the agency has the virus under control.

Government Executive, Coronavirus Roundup: Vaccine Rule Submitted to White House; 60% of TSA’s Workforce Is Vaccinated (October 14,2021)

Williamsport PA Sun-Gazette, Corrections workers protest Biden mandate (October 15, 2021)

Northcentral PA.com, Local picket of vaccine mandates inspires National Picket (October 15, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root