Southwest Airlines CEO Says No Employees Will Be Fired More than Biden’s Vaccine Mandate
Remarks contradict airline company’s COVID guidance released last week proclaiming all unvaccinated employees can face termination by Nov deadline.
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said none of their unvaccinated employees will be terminated as a result of defying Biden’s vaccine mandate.
“ We’re not going to fireplace any employees over this. We’re urging all of our workers to get vaccinated. If they aren’t get vaccinated, we’re urging them to seek an accommodation, therefore we’ll do everything we are able to to support our people right here, ” Kelly told ABC’s “ Good Morning America” on Tuesday.
“ This is a government mandate, it’s a presidential order, and wish doing our best to comply with that according to the deadlines which have been set, ” Kelly additional.
Kelly’s remarks contradict Southwest’s October four announcement declaring that any kind of employee of its 54, 000-strong workforce will be terminated when they don’t take the COVID injection by November 24.
“ Failure to comply with the COVID-19 Shot Policy will result in termination associated with employment. ” the companywide memo states.
Kelly also insisted “ no evidence” exists which the thousands of flight cancellations that will took place over the weekend had everything to do with walkouts within the vaccine mandate.
“ There’s just simply no evidence of that, ” Kelly said. “ Our people are working very hard, they’re doing a great job, I’m very happy with them. ”
As we reported, pilots and airline workers are certainly resisting Southwest’s vaccine mandates , evidenced by photos and account online.
This photo was just sent to me of a grounded Southwest plane flying the Gadsden flag out of the cockpit. The Hero Pilots in Southwest and other Airlines are worthy of our support. True patriots worthy of the American Independence Fighter tradition.
Don’t Tread On Myself.
God Bless Them 🇺 🇸 ✈ ️ 🙏 🏻 pic. twitter. com/tAo9pT4Q60
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) Oct 11, 2021
Southwest had tried claiming the flight cancellations had been the result of “ disruptive weather” and “ air traffic control issues, ” but Kelly attributed the slowdown the airports to worker “ absenteeism. ”
In a prior interview upon Tuesday, Kelly blamed the Biden administration for the chaos caused by the vaccine requirement, saying he’s “ never been in favor of imposing” vaccine mandates.
It’s unclear how exactly the Dallas-based airline will cope with its unvaccinated employees after the Nov. 24 deadline.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed an executive order banning vaccine mandates “ by any kind of entity” in the state upon Monday, but Southwest signaled it would defer to Biden’s mandate, which still hasn’t been added to the Federal Sign up.
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A virus-like video makes clear exactly how pilots truly feel about the particular mandatory Covid vaccine.