A number of major airlines, including Southwest, Delta and American, have announced employees will not be required to be vaccinated for Wuhan coronavirus in order to keep their jobs.
The CEOs of Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines say they are not requiring unvaccinated employees to receive the shot, breaking with United Airlines' mandate that workers get vaccinated by October 25 or face getting fired.
In an internal memo obtained by CNN, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said the airline will "continue to strongly encourage" that workers get vaccinated, but the airline's stance has not shifted.
"Obviously, I am very concerned about the latest Delta variant, and the effect on the health and Safety of our Employees and our operation, but nothing has changed," Kelly said.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian told Good Day New York on Tuesday that 75% of its workforce has already been vaccinated even without a companywide mandate.
Earlier this month United Airlines announced it was mandating vaccines for employees by October 25, something the pilot's union is pushing back against.
“Employer-mandated vaccinations are an issue that must be bargained,” the Air Line Pilots Association said in a statement to Barron’s.
The union had previously negotiated a deal where pilots received two and a half days’ pay as a reward for getting vaccinated. United’s (ticker: UAL) flight attendants union negotiated a deal giving them three extra days of vacation next year, the company confirmed.
The flight attendants’ union didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Frontier airlines has also mandated the shot.
President Joe Biden met with a number of CEOs at the White House Wednesday and urged them to mandate Wuhan coronavirus vaccines for workers, despite the shots being approved only for emergency use.