United Airlines is Firing Employees Who Refuse to Get a Covid Vaccine. Will Other Companies Follow?

“This was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority,” wrote United (UAL) Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart in a letter to employees.

United became the first U.S. airline—and one of the first major U.S. employers—to enforce terminations for employees who don’t comply with a vaccination mandate.

Protein giant Tyson Foods has a similarly stringent vaccination policy. In August, the company announced that all its U.S. employees needed to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 1. The deadline for employees working in corporate offices is Friday.

About 50% of its 120,000 U.S. employees were fully vaccinated in August, the company said. As the Oct. 1 deadline approaches, a little over 100,000 employees, or 80% of Tyson’s (TSN) workforce, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, a company spokesperson said. After the deadline, being vaccinated against Covid-19 will be a condition of employment, and those who do not comply will be terminated, the spokesperson added.

CVS
Health announced in August it would require corporate staff and patient-facing employees, such as nurses, care managers, and pharmacists, to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 31. Pharmacists will have until Nov. 30 to be fully vaccinated, and other roles at the company are being reviewed.

“Under our new policy, vaccination is a condition of employment with CVS Health,” the company said in an emailed statement.

In New York state, New York-Presbyterian Hospital fired a little under 250 employees who refused to get vaccinated in accordance with the state’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. Northwell Health, New York’s largest healthcare provider, has already fired two dozen employees and plans to lay off the rest of its unvaccinated staff in the following days.

Lacking clear federal or state-level guidance, businesses have been left to their own devices to implement vaccine policies.

Starting in November, Delta Air Lines will require unvaccinated employees to pay an extra $200 a month for their company health insurance. Unvaccinated Delta (ticker: DAL) workers have been required to submit to weekly tests and are required to wear masks indoors on company property. Other airlines, such as Southwest Airlines and American Airlines , have encouraged their employees to get vaccinated but have not mandated it.

Other companies are requiring vaccines for employees who want to return to the office or in-person events. These include tech giants Twitter , Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft , and Facebook , as well as major financial institutions such as Jefferies , Morgan Stanley , Citigroup , and Goldman Sachs . Workers who refuse to be vaccinated will be allowed to work remotely.

That may change soon, as the Biden administration implements an emergency standard that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to require their workers to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. The federal government is already requiring all workers and contractors to be vaccinated without the option of testing.

Amtrak, a quasi-public for-profit company, will follow guidelines for federal entities and contractors. All Amtrak employees are expected to be vaccinated by Nov. 22, 2021, the same day as the federal deadline. New hires have until Oct. 4 to show proof of vaccination before their first day.

“Failure to comply with the vaccination mandate will be handled in accordance with our disciplinary policy and code,” an Amtrak spokesperson said in an email. “Employees will face disciplinary action, including termination of employment, consistent with other situations where employees fail to comply with Amtrak policy.”

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