Blue flu

The term itself{{cite journal

|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740997000145

|title=Client violence toward children and youth services social workers

|quote=caseworkers get 'blue fever'

|date=November 18, 1992 |doi=10.1016/S0190-7409(97)00014-5 |last1=Newhill

|first1=Christina E.

|last2=Wexler

|first2=Sandra

|journal=Children and Youth Services Review

|volume=19

|issue=3

|pages=195–212

}} has been used where unions could be heavily penalized. Alternatives include "slowdown" and "virtual work stoppage."

In the United States blue flu work stoppages have been used many times:

• In 1919, one of the first strikes by police officers in the US (which was legal at the time) was stopped by then-Governor Calvin Coolidge using the state's militia.

{{cite web |publisher=The Marshall Project

|url=https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/01/06/a-short-history-of-police-protest

|title=A Short History of Police Protest: From Calvin Coolidge to Bill de Blasio

|author=Clare Sestanovich |date=January 6, 2015}}{{relevance|reason=Was this a case of blue flu? It sounds like a normal strike.|date=June 2024}}

• In 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 air traffic controllers in response to a strike.{{Relevant|discuss=is this about police officers?|date=August 2024}}
• During the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, the blue flu was a ubiquitous and highly effective tactic in Baltimore, Memphis, San Francisco, Cleveland, New Orleans, Chicago, Newark, New York and many other cities.{{cite news |last1=Andrew |first1=Grim |title=What is the 'blue flu' and how has it increased police power? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/01/what-is-blue-flu-how-has-it-increased-police-power/ |access-date=12 July 2020 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=1 July 2020}}
• In 1971, between January 14 and January 19, around 20,000 New York City police officers refused to report for regular duty partly in response to dismissal of a lawsuit that would have increased pay for both police and firefighters, and entitle them to back pay up to the point of their last negotiated contract.
• In 1981, from December 23 to December 24, officers of the 1700-person Milwaukee Police Department conducted a work stoppage, citing disregard they claimed city officials showed for the police.
• In 2020, from June 17 to 20, an undisclosed number of officers of the Atlanta Police Department staged a sick-out to protest the criminal charges brought against the officers involved in the killing of Rayshard Brooks.{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/18/atlanta-rayshard-brooks-walkout/ |first=Katie |last=Shepherd |date=June 18, 2020 |title=Atlanta police call in sick to protest murder charge against officer who shot Rayshard Brooks |newspaper=The Washington Post }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/us/rayshard-brooks-atlanta-police-not-answering-calls/index.html|title=Atlanta police shortages continue for second day |date=June 18, 2020 |accessdate=September 4, 2020 |first1=Steve |last1=Almasy |first2=Ryan |last2=Young |first3=Devon M. |last3=Sayers |website=CNN}}
• In the Republic of Ireland on 1 May 1998, 5,000 Gardaí (police) reported sick; public order was maintained by putting the Irish Army on standby and removing Gardaí from training and administrative work.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thejournal.ie/blue-flu-1998-3004966-Oct2016/|title=Looking back: Here's how things looked the last time the gardaí went on strike|first=Cianan|last=Brennan|website=TheJournal.ie|date=October 2016 }} It is illegal in Ireland for police to strike or form unions.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/review-will-recommend-that-gardai-can-join-trade-unions-35286082.html|title=Review will recommend that gardaí can join trade unions|website=independent|date=December 12, 2016 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.thejournal.ie/factcheck-garda-strike-2900761-Aug2016/|title=Factcheck: Is it illegal for gardaí to go on strike?|first=Michelle|last=Hennessy|website=TheJournal.ie|date=August 7, 2016 }}

Some of the common reasons for these actions are:

• discipline actions that they feel are unjust,{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/23/nyregion/three-killed-in-new-haven-during-a-sickout-by-police.html

|title=Three Killed in New Haven During a Sickout by Police

|quote=angered by .. city's Police Chief ... disciplinary proceedings against two officers involved in the killing of a drug suspect .. had been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing ..the police officers' union voted .. to ask the chief to resign.

|author=Kirk Johnson |date=September 23, 1991}} such as in 2011, when NYC reduced numerous police officers' vacation days by ten when tickets they had issued were tossed as being incomplete. The police blamed the situation on having to fill out a form while amidst confronting the person being ticketed. Technology solved much of this by having scanners reduce the amount of information that had to be recorded manually.

• deadlocked contract talks,{{cite news

|newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/14/archives/blue-flu-hits-policemen.html |agency=AP

|title='Blue Flu' Hits Policemen |date=January 14, 1971}} or frustration due to extended periods of working without a contract.{{cite news |newspaper=Los Angeles Times

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-06-01-me-64346-story.html

|title='Blue Flu': Expensive Epidemic

|quote=working without a contract or pay raise since 1991 .. the last three years

|date=June 1, 1994}} These are sometimes made worse when mixed with ongoing budget cutbacks.The closure of "nearly 100" Irish police stations due to budgeting reasons even as the murder of a Detective was still an open matter: {{cite news

|url=https://www.thejournal.ie/garda-commissioner-blue-flu-protest-threat-781949-Feb2013

|title='It's not on' - Garda Commissioner critical of work-to-rule, 'blue flu' threats

|quote=the issue of station closures ... is an emotive issue

|author=Hugh O'Connell |date=February 4, 2013}}

• work conditions perceived as unsafe.{{cite web |publisher=Vox Media

|url=https://www.vox.com/2014/12/31/7474065/nypd-bill-de-blasio

|title=New York City police officers are protesting by refusing to work. It's not the first time

|quote='From the police point of view, they are working a very, very dangerous job,' Thompson said

|author=German Lopez |date=December 31, 2014}}

Sometimes the proclaimed reason masks something else, such as when enforcing an unpopular decision is claimed to be a contract violation.{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/08/archives/guardsmen-in-boston-for-busing-today.html

|title=Guardsmen in Boston for Busing Today

|quote=contention that the contract has been broken by a change of shifts and overtime orders ... Night shift officers have complained .. will lose their night differential if they work overtime during the day.

|author=John Kifner |date=September 8, 1975}}

In the view of police abolitionist Josie Duffy Rice blue flu is the result of: calls for police accountability or a perceived public critique of policing or police culture of any kind, of in an attempt to blackmail the public into abandoning attempts at police reform and/or removing public officials who advocate accountability.{{cite news |last=Rice |first=Josie Duffy |date=August 25, 2020 |title=The Abolition Movement |work=Vanity Fair |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2020/08/the-abolition-movement |accessdate=September 4, 2020 |quote=Calls for accountability are often met with indignance and threats to desert those most affected by crime. The practice of officers, at the slightest sign of public critique, calling in sick en masse and refusing to do their jobs has long been called 'blue flu.'}}

In Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu, a novel based on the TV series Monk, the main character is given a chance to return to his city's police force during a labor dispute. It's distasteful to him that "he'll be a 'scab'."{{cite web

|url=http://leegoldberg.com/portfolio/mr-monk-and-the-blue-flu

|title=Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu

|author=Lee Goldberg

|author-link=Lee Goldberg

}} A blue flu strike was also a background premise to "The Party's Over", a season 5 episode of CSI NY, aired in 2009; as well as an eponymous episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine in 2021.

The idea of the Blue Flu was referenced in the Babylon 5 episode By Any Means Necessary in 1995, with respect to a labour strike.

"Barney Miller", a sitcom about NYPD detectives in a Greenwich Village precinct, ran a two-part Blue Flu episode called "Strike" in March 1977.

• Dereliction of duty
• Desertion
• Thin blue line
• Work-to-rule
• Blue wall of silence

{{Reflist}}

Category:Labor disputes

Category:Police strikes