United Airlines to lay off 593 workers who refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus | Corresponds to 1% of total company employees

United Airlines, one of America’s largest airlines, announced on Tuesday that will lay off workers who have “decided” not to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, except exceptions for health or religious reasons. The measure will reach 593 people.

In early August, United Airlines implemented a strict vaccination policy: it asked all its employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus and anticipated that those who did not want to would be made redundant.

This Tuesday, in an internal message sent to staff, CEO Scott Kirby and Chairman Brett Hart, thanked the workers who agreed to be vaccinated in recent weeks, that represent “more than 99% of the 67,000 employees” who make up the plant, they assured.

They also underlined the “public activism” of the employees who “convinced” others to be vaccinated since, thanks to this, possible hospitalizations or “even deaths” were avoided. The pandemic “kills 2,000 people a day, an increase of 65% over the past 30 days,” the statement said in support of this argument.

Respect to “less than 1 percent of people who have decided not to be vaccinated, unfortunately we will start the airline separation process in accordance with our policy “they confirmed.

Although there are other companies in the United States that have imposed vaccination mandates among their workers, United Airlines is so far the strictest as it offers the only way out for those who do not want to be vaccinated. , the dismissal, unlike others – like Tyson Foods, Walmart and the big tech companies – which give the possibility of frequent testing.