City of Dayton, union leaders remain at odds over vaccine testing mandates

DAYTON — The City of Dayton and its public safety unions remain at odds over vaccine testing mandates.

The city’s policy went into place Monday, requiring workers to be vaccinated for COVID-19 or test negative.

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Unions representing firefighters and police officers believe the policy violates their collective bargaining rights but the city is moving forward.

And that means anyone that reports to work but doesn’t have a vaccination or agree to city testing, will be sent home.

Ken Couch, the city of Dayton’s Human Resources director, believes the city is within its managerial rights to put this policy in place and emphasizes they tried to give workers a choice.

“You get an employee choice but then there’s consequences to the choice, if you choose not to take the vaccine, you will get the test, if not, you wont be in our workplace,” Couch said.

Union leaders made it clear that their members are willing to work and are showing up for duty as scheduled, but they don’t see the choice in this policy.

“Unilaterally imposed without any input or discussion and that has not changed,” said Kraig Robinson, President of Dayton Firefighters Local.

“Our officers are willing and ready to come to work, they just want to go out there and for the last 18 months they have been,” said Zachary Williams, FOP Lodge 44 Board Member.

Neither the city or either union was willing to put a number on how many workers have been sent home so far, the FOP did confirm some officers have been asked to leave the job site.

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People that depend on police and firefighters are watching this unfold in real time.

“I work for a daycare…That means there could be less people to help the community or even our children,” said Dayton resident LaMiyah Knox.

“If there’s a lot of police officers and firefighters that don’t want to get it, I don’t blame them one bit, the whole my body, my choice thing, you know, so I don’t agree with it,” said Charles Monnig, who also lives in Dayton.

The city believes this is the right policy to protect all 1800 people in their workforce, their families and the community.

“Our responsibility is to maintain a safe workplace and keep the employees safe, everything is driven by that,” Couch said.

Not only are police officers and firefighters sent home from the job not working, they also can’t use their vacation time, so they must use their own cash.

To get back on the job, they would need to pay for their own test to prove they are negative for COVID-19.

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