Posted on 01/19/2022 2:52:36 PM PST by BenLurkin
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test rule for private employers, companies nationwide are faced with a decision: Go ahead with a vaccine mandate anyway, or abandon it.
No matter which path companies choose, backlash appears near certain.
This week, workwear company Carhartt became the latest example of the public tightrope employers must walk to balance the health and safety concerns of employees against staffing challenges, potential legal liability and customer blowback.
"Employers are between a rock and a hard place. You have a responsibility as an employer to provide a safe working environment for your employees. That's an incredibly subjective standard. It just got more subjective when you don't have the benefit of having a law to be able to point at," said David Lewis, the CEO of the human resources consulting firm OperationsInc.
On Friday, Carhartt CEO Mark Valade announced in an internal all-staff email that the company's vaccine mandate — which went into effect for most of Carhartt's 3,000 U.S.-based employees earlier this month — would stay in place despite the Supreme Court's decision. The mandate includes exceptions for religious and medical reasons.
"We put workplace safety at the very top of our priority list, and the Supreme Court's recent ruling doesn't impact that core value," Valade wrote. "An unvaccinated workforce is both a people and business risk that our company is unwilling to take."
Then, a photo of the email circulated on social media.
While vaccine supporters applauded the move, some conservatives called for a boycott of Carhartt products and questioned the wisdom of the company's decision given its traditional blue-collar customer base.
"Pretty rich from a company sustained by the ranchers, farmers, laborers, etc. who make this country great and celebrate her values of freedom and liberty. Boycott Carhartt until they break," wrote Molly McCann, a conservative lawyer who once represented former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Although the company has dramatically expanded its reach in recent years, its best-known products are the rugged jackets and overalls worn by construction workers, contractors and utility workers — and sometimes by politicians on the campaign trail looking to bolster their blue-collar credibility.
"Carhartt fully understands and respects the varying opinions on this topic, and we are aware some of our associates do not support this policy. However, we stand behind our decision because we believe vaccines are necessary to protect our workforce," said company spokesperson Amy Hellebuyck in a statement, She added that a "vast majority" of Carhartt's employees are vaccinated or in the process of becoming so.
The polarized landscape facing companies While vaccines do not completely eliminate transmission of COVID-19, they reduce the likelihood of catching the disease and dramatically improve the odds of avoiding hospitalization or death. Those who have received booster shots are even more protected. Vaccine mandates have been successful at driving up vaccination rates.
The Biden administration rule would have required private employers with 100 or more employees to implement a vaccine mandate or test negative for COVID-19 at least once a week. The rule would have covered roughly 84 million workers.
A December poll by CNN and SSRS reported that 6 in 10 people approved of a rule like the Biden administration's. In another, Axios and Ipsos found that 54% of respondents said they supported employer mandates.
But support for mandates differs sharply among Republicans and Democrats. In the Axios poll, nearly 80% of Democrats supported employer mandates, compared with just 30% of Republicans.
The Biden administration announced the rule in September with the hope that it could drive up vaccination rates nationwide. Originally, it was set to go into effect this month as a regulation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
But the rule was dogged by legal challenges and ultimately blocked by the Supreme Court last week in a 6-3 vote.
Adding to the confusion for companies are states where lawmakers have effectively blocked private vaccine mandates — like in Montana and Tennessee — or undercut them by requiring expansive exemption policies, as in a handful of other conservative states.
The decision isn't always strictly about safety Ultimately, Lewis said, employers will make business decisions about whether to keep vaccine mandates in place. For public-facing companies, consumer sentiment is one factor. But the opinion of current employees also matters, he says.
The tight labor market could be the biggest concern for companies with lower vaccination rates, which may hesitate to lay off employees who refuse vaccines at a time when finding replacements could be difficult.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 73% of Americans over the age of 18 are fully vaccinated. Those who are unvaccinated tend to be younger than 50 and less educated.
That means companies with largely white-collar and coastal workforces may have an easier time implementing and enforcing a vaccine mandate, Lewis said.
"It's not just about the white-collar versus blue-collar, but there's definitely a divide that starts there," said Lewis. "It's politics. It's regions within the country that have been more on board with vaccinations than those that have not."
Following last week's Supreme Court ruling, that divide is increasingly front and center for employers.
Financial goliath CitiGroup said Friday that it will go ahead with its mandate after 99% of the company's tens of thousands of U.S.-based employees complied with a mid-January vaccination deadline.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has continued to defend his company's mandate. Last week, he said the policy "saves lives" and revealed that, on average, more than one United employee was dying of COVID-19 each week before the company's mandate took effect in September.
Among the companies that have taken the opportunity to drop vaccination rules is Starbucks, which had announced earlier this month that it would require employees at its thousands of locations across all 50 states to be fully vaccinated by Feb. 9 or else be tested weekly, as directed by the OSHA rule.
On Tuesday, the company reversed course, informing employees that it would not require any vaccine or testing regimen.
And two of the country's biggest manufacturing companies – GE and Boeing – both dropped their requirements in December after a federal judge stayed another Biden administration rule requiring federal contractors to implement vaccine mandates.
LIE
“They should get better lawyers. Now the company faces and avalanche of liability if anyone of their forced vaxed employees get sick or dies”
You sure about that?
There are plenty of large corporations (with 7 New York law firms) requiring their employees to get vaccinated even without the mandate.
If the employee does not want the vaccination they have the option of quitting...that is how the court would decide.
Good grief.
None of my employees will ever be nagged about getting a medical procedure much less be forced into it.
Exception made for injuries that occur on the job.
Bleeding on the inventory is frowned on.
Yes, the clot shot prevents squat.
There is no “tightrope.” It’s an issue of body autonomy. Does a company have the right to force you to make an irreversible change to your body as a condition of continued employment? The obvious answer is NO.
On average how many employees for United die everyday from whatever. I want to see that stat.
David Lewis, the CEO of the human resources consulting firm OperationsInc., is a fraud and a liar. While firms have a responsibility for providing a safe working environment, coronaviruses are airborne and are found everywhere.
Carhartt CEO Mark Valade is an ignorant clown. He claims an unvaccinated workforce is both a people and business risk that our company is unwilling to take. Well, Mark you ignorant ass, the "vaccines" don't prevent anyone from getting nor spreading COVID-1984. If you're making these ignorant decisions, what other ignorant decisions are you making for your company?
If the "vast majority" of Carhartt's employees are vaccinated or "in the process of becoming so" what do they have to fear from those who haven't taken the Jim Jones Jab?
It's complete propaganda to claim "while vaccines do not completely eliminate transmission of COVID-19, they reduce the likelihood of catching the disease and dramatically improve the odds of avoiding hospitalization or death. Those who have received booster shots are even more protected. Vaccine mandates have been successful at driving up vaccination rates." No, O M M O I R C O R N O I N C proved the "vaccines" DO NOT reduce the likelihood of catching COVID-1984.
Those who've taken the Jim Jones Jab have HIGHER odds of being hospitalized as evidenced by the actual numbers in hospital. As for death, OMICRON is killing so few with the Jim Jones Jab or without it.
Those who received additional "booster" Jim Jones Jabs are not more protected, they're less protected, again, as evidenced by the numbers in hospital.
The evidence from non-lockdown states and the country of Sweden, and those that banned employer mandates shows that the Jim Jones Jabs don't work as well as herd immunity.
It's also a complete lie to say that "Those who are unvaccinated tend to be younger than 50 and less educated." when the opposite is true; the highest group of those who refuse to take the Jim Jones Jab are those with PhDs. So much for the "uneducated".
As for "regions within the country that have been more on board with vaccinations than those that have not.", those regions with the highest rates of the Jim Jones Jabs have the highest rates of COVID infection.
Karhartt can join the list of Pfascist korporations to be brought up before the Nuremberg II tribunals.
Boycott any company that does not support individual liberty and freedom. Or who favors censorship, 2A, etc.
Odd that they never talk about IMMUNITY. Isn’t the purpose of a real vaccine IMMUNITY? But no - “vaccination” is the operative word.
I had Covid in January 2021. Antibodies were at 45, 55, and 69 during August 2021, October 2021, and January 22, respectively. I have been NATURALLY vaccinated. Not going to get the jab, because I judiciously chose to trust my God-given immune system. It worked and is working just fine. Was it a risk? Of course. But a calculated risk, just like taking getting vaccinated is.
Yeah, and that might be the ruling. After they expend the money and effort to fight it in court. But they won’t get that ruling for free.
Much of the clientele of Carhartt may find this extreme wokeness to be just a bridge too far, and they will be looking at the trade catalogs of others lines, Duluth Trading or other real “working men’s outdoor clothing” retailers and online suppliers.
Of course, there is a certain part of their customer base that wildly cheers this assertion on the part of Carhartt.
But like Dick’s Sporting Goods, it is still going to affect the bottom line. I have not been back since they banned all firearms.
In business case studies, this is going to be right up there with Gillette decrying toxic masculinity in men’s shaving commercials.
Exactly! The company can accomplish their socially responsible conscience by inserting the phrase “effective and safe” in front of “vaccine” throughout their company policy statement.
“Why even have require employees be “vaccinated” when the “vaccinations” do not prevent people from contracting and transmitting the China Virus?”
Because two little old white guys keep telling them they must vaccinate at all costs or everyone will die.
“My sister is fully shot up and currently in the hospital after testing positive last week and now fighting pneumonia.”
I am very sorry to hear this news. Best wishes and prayers for her, you and everyone concerned.
“My sister is fully shot up and currently in the hospital after testing positive last week and now fighting pneumonia.”
I’m sorry you have a stupid sister.
My apologies for my snide comment. It was uncalled for.
The vaccines target a protein from a version of the virus that is 2 years old and has mutated. The powers claim this generations old jab is more effective than the immunity built up by having the virus, recent spike proteins and every other component of the virus as a bonus, your body has a record.
Sounds like HR. It goes with the basic HR principle of management: "Never be in the same room as a decision."
“On Tuesday, the company reversed course, informing employees that it would not require any vaccine or testing regimen.”
i call that a win for all of us who called. thank you patriots!
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