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Some of the country’s biggest employers have been reluctant to delve into the worrisome issue of whether Covid-19 vaccines will be mandatory for workers for months, and have had to take action as infections have resurfaced in recent days.
Tuesday, Tyson Foods He said his 120,000 workers in offices, slaughterhouses and poultry factories across the country must be vaccinated by 1 November as an “employment condition”. And MicrosoftEmploying nearly 100,000 people in the United States, he said all employees, vendors and guests will require proof of vaccination before they can enter their offices.
Last week, Google While Disney announced a mandate for all salaried and non-union hourly workers working in the field, the company said it would require employees returning to its offices to be vaccinated.
Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, and other companies, including Lyft and Uber, have taken a less vigorous approach by mandating vaccinations for white-collar workers, but not for millions of front-line workers. These moves essentially created a divide between office workers and those who deal directly with the public and are collectively more reluctant to shoot.
“We did not take this decision lightly,” Donnie King, Tyson’s CEO, told employees in a note explaining the company’s full mandate. “We spent months encouraging our team members to get vaccinated – less than half of our team members are vaccinated today.”
The moves received praise from the White House.
“I want to thank Walmart, Google, Netflix, Disney, Tyson Foods for their recent actions requiring vaccines for employees,” President Biden said at a press briefing on Tuesday. Said. “Look, I know this isn’t easy – but I’ll have their back.”
“Others refused to step up,” he said. “I find it disappointing.”
Indeed, most other major employers have so far avoided the duties altogether. Amazon, the second-largest private employer in the country, has not disclosed plans to require the vaccine, neither Apple nor many of the largest banks.
“We’re working hard to get our employees vaccinated and we hope everyone gets vaccinated and this situation goes away,” Amazon’s CFO Brian Olsavsky told reporters in a phone call last week.
But the coronavirus shows no signs of going away. With vaccination rates falling in many parts of the country and the Delta variant rising, a new wave of infections is forcing businesses to take action.
“The rise of the Delta variant is on people’s minds,” said Douglas Brayley, a business attorney at Ropes & Gray. “I think they’re looking around and they’re seeing more employers starting jobs, so they’re wondering if they need to rethink.”
But vaccine hesitation remains a entrenched and emotionally charged issue in many American workplaces.
Many companies, already facing staffing shortages, are concerned that requiring vaccinations may give employees another reason to quit. At the same time, companies are struggling to find new ways to encourage workers to get vaccinated after efforts like offering cash bonuses don’t raise immunization rates fast enough.
Much of the lingering hesitation against vaccines seems to stem from a complex mix of politics, cultural beliefs, and misinformation that no cash payment or gift certificate from an employer can overcome.
“The reason many workers refuse vaccination is for political and ideological reasons,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents workers in food factories where vaccination rates are relatively low in the Midwest. . “Where we have the most Trump supporters is where we see a lot of vaccine resistance.”
However, many unions different reasons It is not primarily political. They say many of their members are worried about possible health side effects or resent the idea of an employer interfering with what they see as a personal health decision.
Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commerce Workers union, which represents 1.3 million employees at grocery chains and large meatpacking plants like Kroger, said he will not support the employer’s mandate until the Food and Drug Administration gives full approval to the vaccine, which is urgently managed.
“You can’t just say, ‘Take the job or knock on the door,'” Mr Perrone said in an interview on Monday.
After Tyson announced his vaccination mission on Tuesday, Mr. Perrone issued a statement saying the union will “meet with Tyson in the coming weeks to discuss this vaccination mission and to ensure that the rights of these workers are protected and this policy is implemented fairly”. ”
When asked if he supports the vaccine requirements, Mr. Appelbaum said, “I’m not ready to answer that yet.” But he said companies should negotiate the terms of such requirements closely with workers, and also expand benefits such as paid sick time for workers during the pandemic.
Mr. Perrone and Mr. Appelbaum’s unions together represent more than 30,000 workers at Tyson factories, complicating the meat company’s authorization plans.
Tyson and others in the meatpacking industry have been criticized for not doing enough to protect workers in the early stages of the pandemic. a few meat plants have become hotspots of the virus. It now requires that the leadership team be vaccinated by September 24, and other office workers by October 1. A Tyson spokesperson said there are more front-line members than office workers who still need to be vaccinated.
Throughout the pandemic, companies have exercised caution in enforcing public health measures while trying not to harm their businesses.
Last year, when major retailers began requiring customers to wear masks, they quietly told their employees not to follow the rule if a customer was determined not to wear a mask.
Companies like Walmart have tried a similarly ad-hoc approach to vaccine requirements.
Walmart said last week that it required about 17,000 workers in its Arkansas headquarters to be vaccinated, but not those in stores and distribution centers that make up the bulk of its 1.6 million U.S. employees.
The retailer said in a statement that the limited mandate will send a message to all workers that they need to be vaccinated.
“We ask our leaders who are already more vaccinated to clarify their examples,” the company said. “We hope this will impact even more of our frontline workers to get vaccinated.”
Uber and Lyft Last week, the company told its employees that they needed to show proof that they had been vaccinated before returning to their corporate offices.
Mandatory vaccinations are “the most effective way to create a safe environment and give our team members peace of mind when we return to the office,” said Lyft spokesperson Ashley Adams.
However, these powers do not extend to employees with whom companies have contracted to take millions of customers to their destinations. Drivers are encouraged to get vaccinated, but neither Lyft nor Uber have any plans to get vaccinated.
Public health experts warn that limited powers could widen the gap between the country’s high-paid and low-paid workers without furthering the public health goal of dramatically increasing vaccination rates.
They also say it’s naive to think that workers who resist vaccines for ideological reasons will suddenly change their minds after seeing a company’s highly paid executives get the shot.
Associate dean of population health and health equity at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. “Ultimately, we really want to ensure that they have the widest reach,” Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo said of the company directives.. “Failure to do so, I think, will cause others to be more suspicious of such orders.”
Legally, companies are likely to be on solid ground if they mandate vaccines. Last year, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission He said employers can request immunizations, but companies that do so may still face lawsuits.
George W. Ingham, a partner at the Hogan Lovells law firm, said companies with powers would potentially have to make tough decisions.
“They will have to fire high performers and low performers who refuse vaccines,” he said. “They have to be consistent.” Reasons an employee may be exempted include religious beliefs or disability, but the process of separating them individually promises to be a challenging one.
Companies may also have to contend with backlash from state governments. Ten states have passed laws limiting the ability to request vaccines for students, employees, or the public, according to the National Conference of the State Legislature.
Disney is among the few big companies to implement a broad vaccine mandate for their workforce, despite backlash from some employees.
In addition to mandatory vaccinations for non-union workers in the workplace, Disney said all new hires, unionized and non-union, should be fully vaccinated before they start their jobs. Non-union hourly workers include theme park guest relations staff, in-park photographers, executive assistants, and some seasonal theme park employees.
This was the furthest Disney could go without signing a dozen unions representing the majority of its employees. For example, Walt Disney World in Florida has more than 65,000 employees; roughly 38,000 union members.
Disney is now seeking union approval for work in both Florida and California, where tens of thousands of workers at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim are unionized. Many of the leaders of Disney syndicates seem to favor a mission, as long as compliance is achieved for those who reject the vaccine for medical, religious, or other acceptable reasons.
“Vaccinations are safe and effective and are the best line of defense to protect workers, frontline or otherwise,” Eric Clinton, president of UNITE HERE Local 362, which represents nearly 8,000 attraction workers and guardians at Disney World, said in a phone interview.
Mr. Clinton declined to comment on any refusal from membership, but another union leader at Disney World, speaking on condition of anonymity so that he could speak out, was handcuffed by a “fair portion” of his members who were mandated by Disney. said that. vaccines, citing personal preference and fear of vaccines.
“The company probably did a calculation and decided that some people would unfortunately resign rather than protect themselves, so be it,” the person said.
Lananh Nguyen contributing reporting.
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