Delta Airlines Will Not Force “Divisive” Vaccine Mandate As Biden’s Deadline Nears

Multiple reports out today are confirming that Delta Airlines is refusing to enforce what it calls a “divisive” vaccine mandate on it’s employees.

Take a look:

https://twitter.com/PeterSweden7/status/1449427765174865924

Bravo to ⁦@Delta⁩ for having the courage to say NO to the federal vaccine mandate.

It’s the right thing to do—to respect the right of their employees to make their own personal decisions about their own healthcare. https://t.co/6QEQoqA4mP

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 16, 2021

s Southwest Airlines faces an internal crisis, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said his company will not be enforcing a vaccine mandate. https://t.co/04tLm09poK

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 16, 2021

That’s the good news.

The bad news really gives the other side of this story and it’s not as good.

It’s not as though Delta has seen the light and decided to support freedom and liberty.

No.

They’re basically claiming “success” on getting their employees vaxxed through other means, one of which is charging non-vaxxed employees $200 more on health insurance.

So don’t go to too much trouble giving them too much credit.

From Breitbart:

Speaking on The Claman Countdown on Fox Business, Bastian said the company has already reached a high vaccination rate without a mandate in place.

“The reason the mandate was put in by president, I believe, was because they wanted to make sure companies had a plan to get their employees vaccinated,” he said. “A month before the president came out with the mandate, we had already announced our plan to get all of our people vaccinated. And the good news is the plan is working.”

Calling the mandate “divisive,” Bastian said that collaboration with people while respecting their decisions was far more productive.

“By the time we’re done, we’ll be pretty close to fully vaccinated as a company without going through all the divisiveness of a mandate,” he said. “We’re proving that you can work collaboratively with your people, trusting your people to make the right decisions, respecting their decisions and not forcing them over the loss of their jobs.”

The vaccine mandate in the airline industry stirred controversy last weekend when thousands of Southwest Airlines flights were canceled over what some in the media speculated to have stemmed from a covert union strike. The cancelations occurred just two days after the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) filed a lawsuit asking that a federal judge “temporarily block the company from carrying out federally mandated coronavirus vaccinations until an existing lawsuit over alleged U.S. labor law violations is resolved,” according to Bloomberg.

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are parked on the tarmac. (MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images).

“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.”

Despite the timing of the cancelations, SWAPA leaders told CNBC that pilots were not participating in a massive strike, blaming the airline’s “poor planning.”

“We can say with confidence that our Pilots are not participating in any official or unofficial job actions,” SWAPA said.

“Our Pilots will continue to overcome SWA management’s poor planning, as well as any external operational challenges, and remain the most productive Pilots in the world,” the union added.

And from Fox News:

Delta Air Lines is the only U.S. carrier to hold off on enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate for employees and CEO Ed Bastian reported that it’s been an effective tactic for vaccination rates and compliance.

The Delta head revealed on “The Claman Countdown” that the company has reached a more than 90% vaccination rate and expects it to rise another 5% within the next month without a mandate in place.

“The reason the mandate was put in by president, I believe, was because they wanted to make sure companies had a plan to get their employees vaccinated,” he said. “A month before the president came out with the mandate, we had already announced our plan to get all of our people vaccinated. And the good news is the plan is working.”

Bastian acknowledged that there will need to be religious and medical accommodations made for those who wish to remain unvaccinated while avoiding having to threaten employment status.

“By the time we’re done, we’ll be pretty close to fully vaccinated as a company without going through all the divisiveness of a mandate,” he said. “We’re proving that you can work collaboratively with your people, trusting your people to make the right decisions, respecting their decisions and not forcing them over the loss of their jobs.”

And from Reuters:

Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Ed Bastian on Wednesday waded into the debate on mandating coronavirus vaccines, saying government directives are not the only way to make people get the jab.

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“Mandate is only one way to get people vaccinated,” Bastian told Reuters in an interview. “It’s a very blunt instrument.”

As part of efforts to control the pandemic, which has killed more than 700,000 Americans, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, last month signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to mandate COVID-19 shots for employees and get them vaccinated by Dec. 8.

While supporters of vaccine mandates see them as necessary to pull the country out of the nearly two-year-old pandemic, critics are calling them unconstitutional and authoritarian.

So it’s good news, but not THAT great.

Still authoritarian pricks.

Major breakthrough.https://t.co/NcjswqVzcX

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) October 16, 2021