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Two House Republicans accuse the Biden administration of forcing U.S. airlines to demand that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be fired later this year, slamming ‘ill-conceived labor vaccine mandate ” Of the president.
In a Thursday letter obtained by The Post, senior House transport and infrastructure committee member Sam Graves urged President Biden to rethink the mandate which they say leads to the layoff of hundreds of workers including ” jobs have been saved over the past 18 months at huge expense to taxpayers.
“This unilateral mandate and arbitrary deadline will only serve to disrupt airline operations and increase the likelihood of flight cancellations, upsetting vacation plans for thousands of Americans, many of whom have not seen their families. since the start of the pandemic, “they wrote, accusing Biden of overreaching the executive.
“Despite scientific evidence that air travel is extremely safe, your administration chooses to intimidate airlines into laying off unvaccinated employees while giving free passes to other modes of transportation such as transportation. in common, who received $ 70 billion in COVID relief funding from Congress, “the two continued.
“These actions send a false message to the American people that air travel is less safe than other activities, including public transit or other modes of transportation, which is false.”
Members of Congress condemned the administration’s use of civilian reserve air fleet contracts in the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan “as a means of coercing air carriers”, calling it “insulting.”
“Having performed their duties admirably and professionally, this same contract will now shamefully place those same employees under threat of dismissal,” they wrote.
The letter comes a month after Biden issued a work-related vaccine warrant, requiring all employers with more than 100 employees to order vaccines or weekly tests. Federal employees are also affected by the warrant, but they did not have the option of weekly testing.
Airlines have been quick to accept the order since September, and United Airlines issued its own warrant in August. Nearly 600 of United’s 67,000 employees were laid off last week if they missed the Sept. 27 deadline to get the shot.
About 2,000 United employees have been exempted from the warrant for religious or medical reasons, according to company executives.
In their letter, members of Congress criticized White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeffrey Zients for urging airlines to look to United “as a role model” for what the administration expects to what they impose before December.
“The administration’s decision to target airline passenger employees for COVID-19 vaccine mandates and encourage their dismissal if they fail to comply has no basis in a COVID-related law passed by Congress, ”they added.
This week, Southwest became the last major airline to comply with the Biden administration’s order, joining rivals American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue.
Employees must be vaccinated before December 8 or face dismissal. The southern-based airline has around 56,000 employees.
As an alternative, Delta has announced plans to impose a monthly surcharge of $ 200 on the health care costs of unvaccinated employees starting in November.
Alaska Airlines and American Airlines, along with Delta, have said unvaccinated employees will need to operate their own sick leave if they become infected with COVID-19 and miss work.
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