A logo sign outside the Carhartt retail store location in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on April 11, 2020. The company is facing opposition from some conservatives for its decision to push for the mandate. vaccine rights for its employees.
Kris Tripplaar / Sipa USA via Reuters
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Kris Tripplaar / Sipa USA via Reuters
A logo sign outside the Carhartt retail store location in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on April 11, 2020. The company is facing opposition from some conservatives for its decision to push for the mandate. vaccine rights for its employees.
Kris Tripplaar / Sipa USA via Reuters
Now that the US Supreme Court has blocked the Biden administration’s regulation of testing or testing vaccines for private employers, companies across the country are facing a decision: Either way then continue to entrust the vaccine or give it up.
Regardless of which path the company chooses, backlash is almost certain.
This week, the labor protection company Carhartt became the latest example of employers taking a walk to balance employee health and safety concerns against HR challenges, potential liability and customer response.
“Employers are in between a rock and a hard place. It’s your responsibility to provide a safe work environment for your employees. It’s an extremely subjective standard. It’s just subjective. It’s more important when you don’t have the benefit of having a David Lewis, says CEO of HR consulting firm OperationsInc.
Conservative outcry to the Carhartt . mandate
On Friday, Carhartt CEO Mark Valade announced in an internal email to all employees that the company’s vaccine mandate – effective for most of Carhartt’s 3,000 US employees by earlier this month – will stay in place despite the Supreme Court’s decision. The mandate includes exceptions for religious and medical reasons.
“We put workplace safety first on our list of priorities, and the recent Supreme Court ruling doesn’t affect that core value,” Valade wrote. “An unvaccinated workforce is both a human and a business risk that our company is not willing to accept.”
Then a photo of the email went viral on social media.
While vaccine advocates welcomed the move, some conservatives called for a boycott of Carhartt products and questioned the wisdom of the company’s decision based on its blue-collar customer base. traditional.
“Pretty rich from a company maintained by ranchers, farmers, laborers, etc., who made this country great and extolled its liberal and libertarian values. her. Boycott Carhartt until they break.” Molly McCann wrote, a conservative lawyer who once represented the Trump administration’s former National Security Adviser General Michael Flynn.
Although the company has expanded its reach considerably in recent years, its best-known products are rugged jackets and overalls worn by construction workers, contractors, and construction workers. utilities across the country – and sometimes campaigned by politicians seeking to bolster their credibility .
“Carhartt fully understands and respects differing opinions on this topic, and we know that 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 spokeswoman Amy Hellebuyck in a statement, who added that “the vast majority” of Carhartt employees have vaccinated or in the process of becoming one.
Companies face polarizing landscape
Although vaccines do not completely eliminate COVID-19 transmission, They reduce the likelihood of disease and significantly improve the odds of avoiding hospitalization or death. Those who have had a booster shot are even more protected. Vaccination missions have been successful in increasing vaccination rates.
Biden Governance Rules would require private employers with 100 or more employees to either vaccinate or test negative for COVID-19 at least once a week. The rule would cover about 84 million workers.
A December poll by CNN and SSRS reported that six out of ten people approve of a rule like that of the Biden administration. In another, Axios and Ipsos found that 54% of respondents said they support employer mandates.
But support for the mandates differs markedly between Republicans and Democrats. In the Axios poll, nearly 80% of Democrats support employer mandates, compared with just 30% of Republicans.
The Biden administration announced the regulation in September in the hope that it could boost vaccination rates across the country. It was originally set to go into effect this month under regulations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
But the rule has been stymied by legal challenges and was 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 cut them down by demanding extended waivers, as in some other conservative countries.
“It’s a very, very swampy, murky land,” Lewis said. “My strongest message to our customer base is this: You can be everything, or you can’t be.”
Decisions are not always strictly about safety
Ultimately, Lewis said, employers will make business decisions about whether to uphold vaccine regulation. For public companies, consumer sentiment is a factor. But the opinions of current employees are also important, he said.
A tight labor market could be the biggest concern for companies with lower vaccination rates, so they may be hesitant to fire employees who refuse to get vaccinated at a time when vaccinations are hard to find. substitute.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 73% of Americans over the age of 18 are fully immunized. Unvaccinated people tend to be 50 years younger and less educated.
That means companies with white-collar and coastal workforces may have an easier time deploying and enforcing vaccination mandates, Lewis said.
“It’s not just about white-collar versus blue-collar issues, but there’s definitely a divide that starts there,” Lewis said. “It’s the politics. It’s the areas in the country that have been vaccinated more than the areas that haven’t.”
After last week’s Supreme Court ruling, that division has become increasingly central to employers.
CitiGroup financial group said Friday that it will continue to carry out its duties after 99% of the company’s tens of thousands of US employees comply with the vaccination deadline mid-January.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has continued to defend his company’s mission. Last week, he said the policy “saved lives”. and revealed that, on average, more than one United employee died from COVID-19 each week before the company’s mandate went into effect in September.
Among the companies that took the opportunity to deregulate vaccination were Starbucks, announced earlier this month that it will require employees at its thousands of sites across all 50 states to be fully immunized by February 9, or otherwise be tested weekly, as directed by OSHA rules.
On Tuesday, the company backtracked, telling employees it would not be asking for any testing regimens or vaccines.
And two of the country’s largest manufacturing companies – GE and Boeing – both waived their requests in December after a federal judge upheld another Biden administration rule that required manufacturers to do so. federal contractor to enforce vaccine regulations.
