The fact that about half of the 10,000 employees at two major defense contractors in Wichita, Kansas, are unvaccinated as the deadline looms for President Biden’s mandate illustrates a growing crisis, with consequences far beyond the companies themselves.
Private companies that want to continue their lucrative contracts with the federal government have until Dec. 8 to comply. By that date all of their employees must be fully vaccinated, meaning they must receive their last COVID-19 shot at least two weeks before the deadline, according to U.S. government guidance.
But aircraft companies Textron Inc and Spirit AeroSystems are “going to lose a lot of employees over this,” said Cornell Adams, head of the local machinists union district, in an interview with Reuters.
Adams explained that many workers don’t necessarily object to the vaccines, but they strongly oppose what they see as government interference in personal health decisions.
Significantly, Reuters reported Adams is a lifelong Democrat, but he said he will no longer vote for the party.
“They’ll never get another vote from me, and I’m telling the workers here the same thing,” he said.
Across the nation, thousands of U.S. workers could lose their jobs, Reuters noted, with union leaders, workers and company executives warning of the impact on an economy facing stagflation, inflation combined with sluggish growth.
Separate from Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers and the employees of federal contractors is the announced requirement that private companies with 100 or more workers must ensure that all of their workers get a COVID-19 vaccine or be subject to rigorous testing.
The Department of Labor said Monday it will publish in the coming days a rule on the mandate Biden announced Sept. 9. The OSHA rule is estimated to cover about two-thirds of the private sector workforce.
Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas have issued executive orders banning vaccine mandates while pursuing legislation to make the orders permanent.
In Congress on Tuesday, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., introduced a bill to abolish OSHA because of its rule mandating vaccination or rigorous testing for private businesses with more than 100 employees.
Meanwhile:
- U.S. prisons are facing serious staff shortages as officers quit amid the mandates.
- Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva is warning that the mandates are causing a “mass exodus” in his department that threatens public safety amid a rise in violent crime.
- The Marine Corps has warned that any Marine who refuses the COVID vaccine and failed to obtain an exemption by Nov. 28 will be kicked out.
- In New York City — a day after 9,000 city workers were put on unpaid leave for not complying with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s mandate — the mayor blasted city union leaders “downright unpatriotic” for opposing his order. De Blasio threatend “consequences” for the 2,300 firefighters who participated in an alleged sickout that left 18 fire and ladder companies “temporarily out of service” and many more understaffed.
- More than 7,000 employees of Boeing Co have applied for religious exemptions and about 1,000 are seeking medical exemptions, Reuters reported, amounting to about 6% of the aircraft maker’s approximately 125,000 U.S employees. Last week, workers protested at the company’s Auburn, Washington, plant, with one calling the mandate “illegal, immoral and impractical.” The veteran program analyst said employees “are standing together against a company and government trampling on our rights.”
- Two workers for the Rhode Island-based industrical conglomerate Textron who requested religious exemptions told Reuters they were quizzed by human resources representatives on the name of their church leaders and asked detailed questions about their Christian faith.
- Raytheon Technologies’ CEO Greg Hayes last week warned the defense firm will lose “several thousand” employees because of the mandate.
- A group representing FedEx, United Parcel Service and other cargo carriers warned it would be virtually impossible for all of their workers to be vaccinated by the deadline.
- Mercedes-Benz USA, in anticipation of the mandate for private companies, is requiring that workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4. But less than half of the company’s workers at U.S. import processing centers are vaccinated, Reuters reported, citing to a source familiar with the matter.
- NASA scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, protested against the White House vaccine mandate Monday, demanding alternatives to “the vaccines’ dubious performance.”
New York City firefighters last Thursday protested in front of Mayor Bill de Blasios official residence:
Today’s vaccine mandate protest in NYCpic.twitter.com/2bovk64bUF
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) October 29, 2021
At Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix on Monday, airline employees and protesters gathered to protest airline vaccine mandates:
PHX ARIZONA: Airline Employees and Protesters gather in front of Sky Harbor Airport to protest the airline vaccine mandate
Some protesters include American Airline employees and Southwest Employees pic.twitter.com/bhSthTinXQ
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) November 1, 2021
A large crowd gathered Monday in Fort Collins, Colorado, to protest mandates:
Large crowd at mandate protest in Fort Collins, CO pic.twitter.com/x0tT7Heiwd
— King James I 👑 (@KingLibertarian) November 1, 2021
Vaccine mandate protesters Monday night chanted outside Carnegie Hall in New York City, where Vice President Kamala Harris and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul are scheduled to appear:
Anti-vaccine mandate protesters chant “F*ck Joe Biden and de Blasio” outside Carnegie Hall, where Kamala Harris and Gov. Hochul are slated to appear.pic.twitter.com/GX1MlPLqsk
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 1, 2021
EDITOR’S NOTE: Last year, America’s doctors, nurses and paramedics were celebrated as frontline heroes battling a fearsome new pandemic. Today, under Joe Biden, tens of thousands of these same heroes are denounced as rebels, conspiracy theorists, extremists and potential terrorists. Along with massive numbers of police, firemen, Border Patrol agents, Navy SEALs, pilots, air-traffic controllers, and countless other truly essential Americans, they’re all considered so dangerous as to merit termination, their professional and personal lives turned upside down due to their decision not to be injected with the experimental COVID vaccines. Biden’s tyrannical mandate threatens to cripple American society – from law enforcement to airlines to commercial supply chains to hospitals. It’s already happening. But the good news is that huge numbers of “yesterday’s heroes” are now fighting back – bravely and boldly. The whole epic showdown is laid out as never before in the sensational October issue of WND’s monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled “THE GREAT AMERICAN REBELLION: ‘We will not comply!’ COVID-19 power grab ignites bold new era of national defiance.”
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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
