Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was mercilessly booed on stage during a plumbers union fundraiser amid fallout over the city’s vaccine mandate for municipal workers, according to videos.
25 second clip Posted on Twitter Shows the moment the Democratic mayor was loudly mocked on Sunday when she was presented to the 130 Local Plumbers Association – the first Windy City union to endorse her in the 2019 runoff election.
“I knew this was going to happen,” said one of the attendees as the crowd sank at the front of Lightfoot.
“This is brutal for the King,” said a man seated at a table.
One person in a fundraising campaign The Chicago Sun-Times Letfoot “spoke for less than a minute” before the crowd got too angry.
“There were loud boos all over the room,” said one of the attendees. “Almost deaf… I was sitting at the table with a group of plumbers. They’re like, we’ve never heard that before here.”
“It is clear that their membership is not with her,” the anonymous present continued. They were calling her by her name. was bad “.
But a union official disputed this account, saying that Lightfoot was able to “finish her remarks” and eventually get “acclaimed” while acknowledging that she was booed by some.
But it wasn’t a big deal,” the union’s registry secretary, Pat McCarthy, told the Sun Times. And it didn’t disrupt the event at all.”
McCarthy said he believed any critics at the event were not union members.
“We respect her and have no problems with the mayor,” McCarthy told the newspaper.
Lightfoot’s political director, Dave Mellet, insisted it was “well-received” and retracted the characterization of his boss being booted by an unruly crowd.
“There were probably two people in the room who came to scream and talk loudly,” Millett said, adding that he believed the union would support Lightfoot’s bid for re-election in 2023.
The union president said he was downstairs counting money for a football pool when Lightfoot went up on stage.
“I heard nothing,” union president Jim Magerovich told the Sun Times. “I was in a different room, so I can’t tell. You’re telling me some shocking things. I found it hard to believe.”
Under the Lightfoot vaccine mandate, all city employees must either be fully vaccinated or get tested through the end of the year. The head of the city’s police union, John Catanzara, led several protests this week against the order, WLS-TV reported.
Catanzara has asked its members to defy the city’s mandate, prompting Lightfoot to accuse him of trying to “incite rebellion” even after the former union president died of COVID-19.
That case is now being fought in court – with a judge ruling on Monday that she will not extend a temporary injunction against Catanzara that prevents him from making public statements that discourage police from complying with the vaccine policy, The Chicago Tribune reported,.
The Tribune reported that about 23 Chicago police officers inside the 13,000 Police Department were in non-payment as of Monday for not complying with the city’s order to report whether they had been vaccinated.
A federal judge is also expected to rule Friday on an emergency request by more than 100 Chicago firefighters and other city employees seeking to freeze vaccine mandates by Lightfoot and Governor J.B. Pritzker, The newspaper reported.
The 130 plaintiffs, made up primarily of Chicago firefighters and paramedics, want a temporary restraining order to halt a requirement that risks putting them into non-payment if they don’t comply. The filing also challenges Pritzker’s state’s requirement that health care workers and some state employees be fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, the NYPD began requiring unvaccinated cops to take a weekly COVID-19 test last month or send them home without pay. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that all city workers will be required to have their first dose by October 29 or be given unpaid leave until they provide proof of vaccination.
with wire
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