Back in September the Whitehouse issued a vaccine mandate saying all federal contractors must be vaccinated by December 8, 2021. Will hundreds of Federal workers be able to get vaccinated by then? Are they willing to get vaccinated? Will Federal Contractors be forced to terminate workers who aren’t vaccinated by then? That deadline rapidly approaches, but is it actually an attainable goal? Many Republicans do not think so. Some Republicans are concerned the intelligence community will be forced to terminate hundreds of workers by enforcing the vaccine mandate. “It’s not a train wreck that’s coming years from now. It’s within a few weeks,” said Representative Chris Stewart during a House Intelligence Committee hearing, according to FoxNews. Could he be correct in his assumptions? Are federally contracted companies like the CIA preparing to terminate hundreds of workers?
Will the CIA be Terminating Hundreds of Workers?
Representative Darin LaHood asked CIA Director William Burns: “Is the agency prepared to terminate hundreds, if not thousands, of CIA employees, case officers and intelligence professionals if the vaccine is not abided by?” Burns said the agency has a 97% vaccination rate but he might have to terminate hundreds of workers. “We’ll follow the process that’s been laid out under the law but potentially it could come to that,” Burns said. LaHood suggested the intelligence community should not implement the vaccine mandate until the Supreme Court issued a decision. Both Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines noted that they didn’t anticipate the vaccine mandate affecting their agencies. “I look at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and it’s actually – the numbers are quite small in terms of ones that have indicated that they are not vaccinated,” she said. The numbers are small for those agencies. What about the agencies whose numbers are in the thousands?
What Other Contractors Will be Terminating Hundreds of Workers?
Federal Contractors have told hundreds of workers they risk losing their jobs if they do not comply with the vaccine mandate. Raytheon Technologies’ Chief Executive, Greg Hayes, warned the U.S. aerospace and defense firm could lose ‘several thousand’ workers as it prepares to comply with the vaccine mandate. A group representing FedEx Corp, United Parcel Service Inc, and other cargo carriers told the White House it would be virtually impossible to have all of their workers comply with the vaccine mandate by the deadline. Republican Senator Roger Wicker urged Biden to abandon the plan, saying “we cannot afford to gut our transportation network of tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of essential, good-paying jobs.” What happens if these Federally Contracted workers do not comply with the vaccine mandate? Will hundreds of workers who are highly skilled and paid be terminated? What effect would that have on our economy?
According to Reuters, Some airlines and industry-watchers initially feared an exodus of unvaccinated airline or government employees involved in travel just before the Christmas season. Southwest Airlines Chief Executive Gary Kelly said last week: “We want our employees to know that nobody is going to lose their job on December 9 if we’re not perfectly in compliance.” The White House says federal contractors have significant flexibility in enforcing the vaccine mandate and will not be required to terminate hundreds of workers. Federal Contractors will be given time for education, counseling and other measures before they face the possibility of termination. What happens if workers go through education and counseling, but still do not wish to get the vaccine? Will the vaccine mandate eventually lead to mass termination of hundreds of federally contracted workers in the beginning of 2022? Do you think the government should force contractors to comply with the vaccine mandate?
