In the fog of the crappy news coming out of Biden’s America, with the eighty-one million supporters he has (snicker snicker), it is refreshing to, on occasion, find a surprising news nugget. America’s backbone may be stiffening on getting the COVID jab to keep your job.
I’m encouraged by this small ray of sunshine.
I’m sure most everyone by now has heard of some of the bigger instances of employees giving the middle finger salute to mandates. Probably the one that DEMANDED news coverage was the Southwest pilots saying “no mas” which effectively shut down air travel for a whole bunch of people. Red State’s compadre, and my colleague. Brad SlagerThis piece was published earlier in the month. Slowing the Spread of the Mandates — Southwest Airlines Announces It Will Drop Plans to Furlough Unvaccinated WorkersThis is a brief refresher of the article. A brief refresher from that article…
Although many businesses succumbed before implementation began, others have faced resistance from their employees. Southwest Airlines announced today that it is withdrawing from strong implementation of their mandate. On December 8, all employees had to be either vaccinated, or faced what was effectively a furlough. It has since changed its position after being faced with pushback in a variety of places.
A letter was sent to employees stating that people who remain unvaccinated because of religious objections or medical reasons will now be subject to review and retained their employment status.
Southwest’s senior vice president of operations and hospitality, Steve Goldberg, and Julie Weber, vice president and chief people officer, wrote to staff on Friday that if employees’ requests for an exemption haven’t been approved by Dec. 8, they could continue to work while following mask and distancing guidelines until the request has been reviewed.
“This is a change from what was previously communicated. Initially, we communicated that these Employees would be put on unpaid leave and that is no longer the case,” they wrote in the note, which was reviewed by CNBC.
The news is out that some people in mainstream America are catching Southwest Pilot fever. New research was conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and I’m a bit surprised at the numbers.
First up, if you had a choice of getting the jab or doing weekly testing this is what KFF found…
Unvaccinated workers were asked to answer a question about what they would do in the event that their employer mandated them get COVID-19 vaccinations or have weekly COVID-19 testing. 11% said they would get it, while nearly half of those (46%) said they would choose weekly testing and 37% stated they would leave the job. These are 1% of adults that would receive the vaccine under an employer mandate, and 5% who said they would quit their jobs.
Just 11% would be eligible for the shot. A healthy 37% of respondents would give up their bird to get the vaccine. This is quite impressive. What if your employer demanded that you get the vaccine to maintain your job?
If the employer does not provide weekly testing options, then the percentage of workers who claim they will get the vaccine rises to 17% (2%) of all adults. The share that says they will quit their job goes up to 72% (9%) of all adults).
A little over 6 out 10 workers who are not vaccinated (59%) would likely apply to an exemption if they were required by their employers. This includes 27% who would request a religious exemption, and 16% who would seek a medical exemption.
The 72% who were questioned said they would not be working for the company.
Ten years ago, people had the option of taking a chance or keeping their jobs. I’d have predicted that 80% would give the one-finger salute. After the events of the last fifteen months, what I saw has left me disillusioned.
This poll is giving me some hope.
Perhaps there are enough Americans left who will stand up to tell the government by and for the people that this is unacceptable.
Perhaps we can prevent the founders degenerating on one issue.
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