Trash Piles Up In Forest Hills As Vax Mandate For Workers Begins

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Residents of Forest Hills reported trash piling up on neighborhood streets over the weekend, as garbage collection slowed ahead of the city's vaccine-or-no pay mandate, which went into effect on Friday.

There were 47 complaints of uncollected trash and recycling in Forest Hills from Friday through Monday, according to 311 data. The weekend before, by contrast, saw just two missed collection reports.

The complaints spiked in the days after the mandate for municipal workers to get one dose of the vaccine went into effect. While the city workforce is 91 percent vaccinated as of Monday, only 82 percent of sanitation workers have gotten a dose of the vaccine, according to mayor's office data.

At a news conference last week De Blasio, who said that the slowdown is "related to people expressing their views on this new mandate," berated workers who aren't doing their jobs.
"Anyone who is not doing their job, you're harming your fellow sanitation workers, and you're harming your neighbors, and you're harming your city," de Blasio said. “And it's time to stop.”

Trash pileups beyond Queens: four times as many New Yorkers called 311 to report uncollected trash after the city launched its new vaccine mandate compared with the month prior, Gothamist reported.

Sanitation Commissioner Edward Grayson admitted in an interview with NY1 on Tuesday that there have been citywide collection delays, but attributed the slowdown to a "miscommunication" not a coordinated show against the mandate.

Other city workers have protested the vaccine mandate too. Throngs of firefighters and other municipal employees gathered outside Gracie Mansion last Thursday to rally against the mandate.

"This is a personal choice everyone wants to make for themselves," Andrew Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association told Fox News earlier in the day, adding that the union plans to file a lawsuit over the mandate.

Ansbro said that he is vaccinated, but other firefighters still have some of the lowest vaccination rates of any city workers. Only 75 percent of FDNY firefighters had been vaccinated as of Monday, data shows.

Joseph Mannion, president of the Sanitation Officers Association, worries that trash pileups might continue past Monday, if some sanitation workers' refusal to get vaccinated leaves the agency with a possible worker shortage.

In preparation, he said that the department has moved to snow season shifts — from eight hours to 12.

"Prepare for the worst and hope for the best," Mannion said.