The Biden administration on Thursday announced the deadline for his private employer vaccine mandate, raising serious questions about how the rule will exacerbate the supply chain crisis.
According to RealClearPolitics’ Tom Bevan, there is no exemption for the trucking industry and there will likely be drivers who quit over the mandate.
“So all the biggest trucking companies in America - who already face major driver shortages - will see a % of their workforce quit. Supply chain crisis is going to get much worse - very soon,” he warned.
Bevan noted that a significant percentage of drivers are unvaccinated, which doesn’t make much of a difference given “the very nature of the job is iconoclastic: they spend most of the day alone in the cab of a truck, having very little interaction with other people.”
This also means their risk of transmission is lower than other occupations, he said.
More (1) A large percentage of truckers are not vaxxed. The very nature of the job is iconoclastic: they spend most of the day alone in the cab of a truck, having very little interaction with other people.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) November 4, 2021
More (2) So they are much lower risk for transmission than, say office workers or healthcare workers. But there is no group in America that is more vital to the function of the economy. If they stop driving, EVERYTHING stops.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) November 4, 2021
Bevan wasn’t the only one to sound the alarm, however.
Jon Sampson, executive director at the American Trucking Association, warned the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday about how the supply chain will be affected by the mandate amid a shortage of drivers.
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“The trucking industry is not anti-vaccination, we are anti-supply chain inefficiency,” he said. “A lot of larger truck lines have drivers with vaccine hesitancy.”
Samson said there were 80,000 open truck driver jobs in the U.S., warning that larger trucking firms fear they could lose a significant portion of their workforce in part because some drivers may leave larger trucking companies for smaller ones or leave the industry entirely.
One area the truck driver shortage could contribute to supply chain issues is the distribution of agricultural products, which lawmakers on the committee warned could eventually result in food not making its way to store shelves should the shortage continue.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott (D-Ga.) called the driver shortage “a tremendous challenge” to the agricultural product supply chain.
“They hold the key as to whether or not we will have a food supply shortage,” Scott said. “We don’t have a food shortage, but the supply is in the hands of our truck drivers.” (The Hill)
According to the White House, businesses with 100 or more employees must mandate workers be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4 or begin turning over weekly negative Covid-19 tests. The private employer mandate is expected to impact 84 million people.
Job Creators Network announced it filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration in response to the mandate.
“The Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate is clearly illegal and will have a devastating impact on our small business community and our entire economy. JCN is suing the Administration on the grounds that OSHA does not have the authority to impose such a mandate," JCN president and CEO Alfredo Ortiz said in a statement.
“The Administration’s mandate will exacerbate the worst labor shortage in recorded history by requiring small business owners to terminate some employees who wish not to get vaccinated while also shrinking the pool of job applicants available for hiring," he added. "Associated staffing shortages will force many of them to reduce capacity and economic output. The mandate also adds a new expense for businesses in the form of the costs associated with employee vaccination status tracking and required paid time off for employee vaccination. Employers who don’t comply will face significant financial penalties."
Last month, JCN told White House officials about its concerns and warned it would sue if the administration proceeded with the mandate.
"JCN is eager and willing to lead this fight on behalf of America’s 90-million-strong small business community. We are going to court and we are determined to prevail," Ortiz said.
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