{"id":86849,"date":"2021-09-29T11:55:21","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T15:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=86849"},"modified":"2021-09-29T11:55:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T15:55:21","slug":"united-airlines-set-to-terminate-593-workers-for-refusing-covid-19-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=86849","title":{"rendered":"United Airlines Set To Terminate 593 Workers For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>By Mimi Nguyen Ly<br \/>\nThe Epoch Times<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-united-airlines\">United Airlines<\/a>\u00a0is set to\u00a0<strong>terminate 593 of its employees who have chosen not to comply with the company\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-vaccine-mandate\">vaccine mandate<\/a><\/strong>, the company confirmed to The Epoch Times early Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/united-airlines-agent-700x420.jpg?itok=esbJ73zr\" data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/united-airlines-agent-700x420.jpg?itok=esbJ73zr\" data-link-option=\"0\"><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-images image-style-inline-images\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/united-airlines-agent-700x420.jpg?itok=esbJ73zr\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"300\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"6593c7d6-08ba-4d8e-9130-8fb23812f43a\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"Advert_desktop__1J5vD Advert_tablet__3QEBr Advert_mobile__1rlLc Advert_placement__1I4yb Advert_align__N0_fw\">\n<aside id=\"in-content-video\" class=\"Advert_verticallySpaced__wnPy3\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/21841313772,21778456762\/zerohedge\/in_content_video_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>The company was the first U.S. carrier to mandate vaccines\u00a0for all domestic employees, having announced its mandate in August. Employees were required to be vaccinated by Sept. 27, otherwise they would be terminated by Oct. 2. Those who refused the vaccine would be terminated outright.<\/p>\n<p>In a memo to employees on Tuesday, obtained by The Epoch Times, United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart said the company would start the process of firing the employees who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the disease caused by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/giving-the-right-name-to-the-virus-causing-a-worldwide-pandemic-2_3277200.html\">CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The United executives told staff that\u00a0<strong>more than 99 percent of domestic employees \u201cchose to get vaccinated, excluding those who submitted for an accommodation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cFor the less than 1% of people who decided to not get vaccinated, we\u2019ll unfortunately begin the process of separation from the airline per our policy,\u201d the memo reads.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>This was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority.<\/strong>\u00a0The pandemic is now killing more than 2,000 people per day\u2014a 65% increase in just the past 30 days\u2014and the most effective way to keep our people safe, is to make sure they\u2019re vaccinated.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The memo noted that those applying for a medical or religious exemption have had the \u201cthe deadline for implementing the accommodations\u201d extended due to a pending court case.<\/p>\n<p>United officials said that people who applied for religious and medical reasons account for less than 3 percent of the company\u2019s workforce of 67,000 people.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>It was going to offer an \u201caccommodation\u201d of unpaid personal leave from Oct. 2. Doing so would mean the employees would also forfeit their benefits, including medical coverage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Six United employees last week\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/united-airlines-employees-file-lawsuit-against-company-over-covid-19-vaccine-mandate_4010791.html\">filed a class-action suit<\/a>\u00a0against the airline, with attorneys arguing that the company\u2019s handling of its vaccine mandates violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The attorneys\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/united-airlines-pauses-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-for-workers-seeking-religious-medical-exemptions_4022310.html\">announced Tuesday<\/a>\u00a0that United had agreed to pause its plan\u00a0until Oct. 15 to apply so-called \u201caccommodation\u201d for about 2,000 of its employees who have applied for religious or medical exemptions.<\/p>\n<p>They hailed the move as \u201ca victory for employees seeking reasonable accommodations for personal medical decisions,\u201d and condemned the \u201caccommodation\u201d that United initially offered as \u201ctermination by another name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Texas Judge Mark Pittman is set to hear evidence and arguments in the lawsuit on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n<p>A United spokesperson told Reuters that the\u00a0<strong>company plans to hire about 25,000 people over the next few years, and COVID-19 vaccination is a condition of employment.\u00a0<\/strong>The spokesperson added that United will also require students at its pilot training school to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/united-airlines-set-to-terminate-593-workers-for-refusing-covid-19-vaccine_4022677.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}