Aerospace giant Boeing announced Friday that it would be suspending its vaccine mandate for employees after President Biden's federal vaccine requirement was halted by judges amid challenges from numerous companies and states attorneys general.
An email from Boeing announced that it would be "suspending the vaccination requirement for U.S.-based employees," a decision the company said "comes after a detailed review of a U.S. District Court ruling earlier this month that halts the enforcement of a federal executive order requiring vaccinations for federal contractors, a recent Executive Branch directive not to enforce the order on those contractors, and a number of state laws which limit an employer's ability to impose mandatory vaccine requirements." Seeking to remind the public who triggered the mandate in the first place, Boeing's email emphasized that it initially "adopted its U.S. requirement to ensure compliance with the federal executive order."
Here’s the e-mail. pic.twitter.com/wx5BfLxslT
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) December 17, 2021
In early November, Bloomberg reported that some 11,000 Boeing employees had requested an exemption from the company's vaccine mandate spurred by the Biden administration's OSHA-levied mandate, "a sign of backlash among some rank-and-file workers to the Biden administration’s rules for government contractors."
Boeing's email announcing the suspension of its mandate noted that 92 percent of its U.S.-based employees are already fully vaccinated or exempted from the requirement, a statistic that Boeing says "positions the company well to comply with the federal executive order should it be reinstated in the future."
The decision to suspend its vaccine mandate puts Boeing on a growing list of entities who've announced similar suspensions in recent days while Biden's rule faces tests in court. As Townhall covered earlier this week, Biden's beloved Amtrak also suspended its mandate, along with the Cleveland Clinic's healthcare system of 19 hospitals, and HCA Healthcare Inc. and its 183 hospitals.
Being able to suspend vaccine mandates is good for companies amid labor shortages that make the prospect of laying off or firing employees who choose not to get vaccinated or who are ruled ineligible for exemptions especially harmful. Boeing, Amtrak, healthcare providers, and companies who are still clawing their way back to pre-pandemic levels of productivity frankly can't afford to lose employees if they hope to resume business as usual amid a labor market that's proving hesitant to bounce back.