CHICAGO (CBS) — Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday announced that she has directed the city Law Department to drop its lawsuit against the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police over the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The lawsuit was filed on the grounds that FOP President John Catanzara was calling for his members to engage in an illegal work stoppage or strike by encouraging them to defy the mandate requiring city employees to report their COVID-19 vaccination status.
“The past few weeks have shown what I have said from the beginning to be true: that our brave police officers are smarter than their FOP leadership, and care more about their city, their fellow Chicagoans, and upholding their sworn oath to protect and serve, than they do Catanzara’s frivolous demands to stop working,” Mayor Lightfoot said in a statement.
The statement said the lawsuit could be filed again if the FOP or Catanzara “take any further action toward encouraging an illegal work stoppage or strike.”
