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Southwest employees score victory: Company scraps plan to punish unvaccinated employees

Collin Rugg
Trending Politics
Tue, 19 Oct 2021 17:01 UTC

According to CNBC, Southwest Airlines has scrapped their plan to punish employees who refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccination.

On Friday, Southwest's senior vice president of operations and hospitality, Steve Goldberg and vice president and chief people officer, Julie Weber, notified the company that unvaccinated employees would still be able to work past the originally planned December 8th deadline.

The decision by Southwest comes after the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association fought the company's vaccine mandate in court.

"The new vaccine mandate unlawfully imposes new conditions of employment and the new policy threatens termination of any pilot not fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021," the legal filing said. "Southwest Airlines' additional new and unilateral modification of the parties' collective bargaining agreement is in clear violation of the RLA."

Check out what CNBC reported:

Southwest Airlines has scrapped a plan to put unvaccinated employees who have applied for but haven't received a religious or medical exemption on unpaid leave starting by a federal deadline in December.

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.

The company is giving employees until Nov. 24 to finish their vaccinations or apply for an exemption. It will continue paying them while the company reviews their requests, and said it will allow those who are rejected to continue working "as we coordinate with them on meeting the requirements (vaccine or valid accommodation)."

"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.

Southwest confirmed the policy change, which comes just weeks before the deadline.

Comment: The Great Southwest Airlines rebellion?

Reader Comments

Good Optics · 2021-10-20T17:26:58Z

A little sanity creeping back in

Buffalo_Ken · 2021-10-20T17:35:36Z

I ain't never gonna fly on an effing plane for the rest of my life - too damn risky.

I might ride the train and then if there is a calamity that occurs, my chances of survival are much higher versus all the potential energy a plane accumulates 35000 feet above ground level in the thin air.

Better infrastructure starts with trains and what-not. China knows this. A dude a few centuries ago in France did as well. Several in the US of A did and one of them helped Russia develop better train infrastructure, but then if I recall correctly his efforts were stifled. Still, at the end of the day history has taught this - when engineers and builders and those who try to make things better grow the infrastructure of a land with hard word and sweat and blood and tears, then when the job is done, things are better for those who come after. So, makes one ponder why so much money been floating up high to those who already have more than they need. My guess is they are self-centered and they have no idea about the benefits of infrastructure for the commoners cause they could give a shit about the commoners. In a nutshell that captures it.

More of us then there are of them and so time has come to push back!

Big Time!

BK

sottreader · 2021-10-20T18:14:53Z

What an absolute BS headline and article.

The employees most certainly did NOT achieve a victory. At best, they got a temporary reprieve.

A victory would have been a formal commitment by the company to drop the mandates completely. Anything less leaves the sword of Damocles hanging over the employees' heads.

InfoWithJo · 2021-10-20T19:42:58Z

Sottreader, you are absolutely correct. All this does is get them through the holiday season. The exemptions will still be denied.

In order to meet the Green goals, all of us commoners have to quit flying anyway. That is why they could careless if they lose employees. Most industries will go AI and need less people. And if the kill shots do their job, we won’t need as much volume anyway. They know what they are doing...

ReRan · 2021-10-20T19:47:42Z

InfoWithJo And sottreader, good points, especially about the upcoming holiday season.

Buffalo_Ken · 2021-10-20T19:49:57Z

InfoWithJo - who is the "they" you are referring to. I think most of them are flying by the seat of their pants. They are afraid to think for themselves.

Incidentally, I talked with G's brother and let him know what he should have known already. Whether he knew it or not, he didn't say, but I let him know everything potentially coming down the pike cause - well, he is my friend.

One way or the other Mecklenburg County is gonna get better. By the way, did that recent pipe failure affect you? Seems a shame there has not been good information as far as how long one needs to boil water - I told my wife the risk was low....but still....one pipe feeding 2/3rds just about of the population. Seems like just another bottleneck.

BK

InfoWithJo · 2021-10-20T20:02:43Z

Buffalo_Ken The ‘they’ would be the idiots pushing for the WEF Great Reset - I can name the front facing group, but I don’t really know who holds the real power.

I actually live in Gaston County. I just worked for Mecklenburg. So the water issue didn’t hit me. I know it happened, but I don’t know the scoop. My daughter works for storm water, so I’ll see if she has any info when I see her tomorrow.

About improvement... I wish I knew more. I’m having a hard time finding groups that I can get involved in.

Buffalo_Ken · 2021-10-20T20:12:02Z

InfoWithJo - no need for any follow-up. I know this. The reality of infrastructure is it has some critical components that act as bottlenecks in a way and this is unavoidable from an engineering standpoint. Now, in this day and age of great trickery, those who want to fool others and care not about the harm they cause, these sort of bottlenecks have been identified by "them" in the event they need to cause more of their trickery on the fly. To cause harm to say it plainly - that is what they do naturally. Now in my mind why would anybody, any entity, any county, and country for that matter..... why would they want to think in such a way? Why do they want to put the tricks in their mind upon the rest of us who just want to live in peace and harmony. So, not to get all goofy about it, even though I know I already have, just to take this thought process out to its logical extreme, at some moment in time those who think their self-fulfilling views must be...especially the ones of them practicing trickery.....especially even more the ones of them causing large-scale harm....well I think this Halloween time is the perfect time - given all the celestial bodies positions as we speak - for a little comeuppance against those perpetuating suffering of innocence especially on a large-scale. And the word "little" in the context of the previous sentence ought be read relatively compared to the time that big rock hit the planet and such and pretty much everything died in order to start again.

Buffalo_Ken · 2021-10-20T20:18:48Z

Buffalo_Ken - I got timed out, so let me add this:

Everything except the "little things" like bacteria, fungi, algae, lichen, and small farms. Small is Beautiful as Schumacher espoused and I agree.

Get with the game.

Learn or Die.