No Jab- No Job! Major airline becomes first to mandate vaccines for employees

No Jab- No Job! as Major airline becomes the first to mandate vaccines for employees.

No Jab- No Job! American carrier, United Airlines, will now require its U.S. employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 this fall, becoming the first major airline in the world to implement a vaccine mandate for the workforce.

The airline’s decision came as several corporations including Google and Netflix announced vaccine requirements for their employees to counter the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.

“We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees- but, we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you’re at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated,” said United CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart in an employees memo on Friday, August, 6.

United employees will in future be required to show proof of vaccination five weeks after the Food and Drug Administration grants the COVID-19 vaccines full approval, or Oct. 25, whichever comes first. Federal officials are expected to approve Pfizer’s vaccine by early next month.

All of the company’s 67,000 employees will be subject to the vaccine mandate, except those who will be exempted for medical or religious reasons.

“Over the last 16 months, Scott has sent dozens of condolences letters to the family members of United employees who have died from COVID-19. We’re determined to do everything we can to try to keep another United family from receiving that letter,” said a spokesperson for United executives.

United officials announced to news outlets that about 80 percent of its flight attendants and 90 percent of its pilots are already vaccinated.

Related:

Kaiser Permanente, one of America’s largest health care providers, will require all of its physicians and employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of September. Disney is requiring all salaried and non-union hourly employees in the U.S. to be fully vaccinated, though it’s not clear why union members get different treatment.

Walmart will require office workers, but not store and warehouse workers to be vaccinated-  interestingly, everything we know about Covid-19 says the retail workers face greater Covid risks because stores are high traffic indoor environments.

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