Southwest Airlines is the first major company to push back at Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.

The low cost carrier said they will not fire employees for not getting the COVID vaccine. 

Here’s their reason for not complying; “It makes no sense.”

The airline said they encourage their employees to get the shot, but they don’t want to lose any workers over the Biden mandate they feel is ridiculous. 

Here’s what CEO Gary Kelly said in an earnings call. 

“We’re not going to fire anybody who doesn’t get vaccinated. How we work through the people that don’t get vaccinated or don’t seek an accommodation, we’re going to have to figure out and we’re working with the government on that.”

Southwest has to walk a fine line, because they are considered a government contractor, so they would fall under Biden’s mandate, but they also have concern for their employees and want to respect the choices of some to not get the vaccine. 

Here’s more from Kelly. 

“It makes no sense that we would not respect that and find some way to work with our people on that.”

American Airlines told their flight attendant’s union that their members also would not be immediately fired if they did not get the vaccine before a November deadline date. 

United on the other hand gave their employees a hard deadline of September 27th to get the jab.  The company is now in the process of firing 232 of their employees, or 1% of their entire staff for missing the deadline. 

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