Washington State first responders fired by Governor Inslee for not complying with mandates

Washington state first responders marched on Seattle City Hall to turn in their work boots after they were fired on Monday for not complying with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

According to the Seattle Times, Democrat Governor Jay Inslee fired nearly 1,900 state workers that did not submit vaccination records, a requirement ordered by Inslee that had an October 18 deadline. Those numbers don't include workers that were fired by their local governments which is predicted to be in the thousands.

As of Wednesday, 103 Seattle police officers are to be fired once the city denies accomodations for exemptions. This will follow the 6 officers that were fired Monday for not submitting. According to Seattle Fire, 11 firefighters didn't submit vaccination records. Similar to Seattle PD, the department is also denying accomodations for religious and medical exemptions adding 66 more employees to the fired list.

Former Seattle firefighters and police officers chose not to let Democrat Mayor Jenny Durkan and Inslee take away their ability to serve and gathered in Pioneer Square on Tuesday to feed the homeless, just mere hours after they were fired.

"When they push us we come together to do what's right," a Seattle firefighter told The Post Millennial.

The group was joined by their families, members of the local community, and on-duty first responders that wanted to show support for their colleagues. According to sources in Seattle Fire, on-duty firefighters that submitted vaccination records were paged during the event and was ordered by a battalion chief to leave the gathering. They allegedly didn't want them within close proximity to the "unvaccinated."

Following the homeless feed, Seattle police officers and firefighters marched to City Hall and walked up the steps to turn in their work boots.

Around the same time, Washington State Patrol troopers gathered at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia and laid down their boots and hats on the steps of the building.

WSP lost 127 employees over the mandate, 74 of them are state troopers. However, the final number of WSP employees getting fired will increase when the state tallies up the number of those who are retiring early, burning time, and/or won't get accommodated for the exemptions they were granted.

In August, Inslee implemented the strictest mandate in the nation and provided no option for workers to submit frequent testing in place of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Employees were lost across state agencies due to Inslee's mandate including:

Department of Corrections– 4.5 percent (about 350 employees).

Department of Social Health Services– 2 percent (about 313 employees).

Department of Transportation– 402 employees. Nearly 130 of them are ferry workers. Washington has one of the largest ferry systems in the US. Ferrys have cancelled dozens of sailings over the last week due to staffing shortages.

Department of Fish and Wildlife– 2 percent (38 employees).

So far, 1,887 state employees were terminated over the mandate, according to the Office of Financial Management. In addition, 1,927 workers received accommodations which allows them to work. 4.6 percent of state workers (nearly 2,900) are still in a state of flux, according to a statement by OFM Tuesday afternoon.  This means that they are either retiring in response to the mandate or they are being given more time to comply.