SWA announces COVID vaccination required by Dec 8 to maintain employment

Such BS (bolded portions).

Can’t believe my dues are going to an outside counsel over this! :mad:

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Last week, Alaska Airlines management announced that approved COVID-19 vaccines would be required of all employees, likely by December 8, 2021, unless they qualified for a religious or medical exemption. Management ascribes their change of position to requirements being imposed on Federal Contractors. You may recall that your MEC has constantly pressed, and repeatedly communicated, that vaccines should be available to all but required by none.



With this announcement, we are in a place we have consistently advocated against, but knew was possible. We are also acutely aware of the wide spectrum of opinions on the issue and from the beginning have done our best to advocate for solutions that would create the best outcome for all our pilots. Some examples include:



  • Advocating to make vaccination easy, to include appropriate compensation for hours unable to work and for lost trips.
  • Presenting ideas for a mutually-effective testing program, including: reimbursement, duty day issues, and solutions to possible false positive tests.
  • Raising the issue of a mandate exemption for pilots who test positive for antibodies.
  • Challenging management for clarity on pilots’ concerns over: privacy issues, data controls, process for the differences in vaccination status, and effects on a pilot's ability to work in this environment to name just a few.


Now that a mandate has been announced by management, your MEC chairman has:



  • Pushed for transparency on new or renewed government contracts that justify implementing this program on December 8 (we still await a concrete response).
  • Engaged the ALPA National legal team, conferred with MEC chairman of other airlines and briefed the MEC on those conversations to inform the best path forward.


While the available legal authority indicates management can mandate the vaccine, the Company still has the obligation to meet with your negotiating committee to bargain the effects of the mandate. At our insistence, the Company has agreed to meet next week. Our expectation is that the careers and health of all pilots will be protected—including protection from termination for unvaccinated pilots. While your MEC continues to advocate the issues noted above, it has:



  • Retained outside legal counsel to analyze the legality of the vaccine mandate and to clarify issues raised during our MEC discussions.
  • Pressed the Company to provide clarity to those pilots seeking either a medical or religious exemption. As a reminder, if a pilot chooses to seek an accommodation based on a medical or established religious basis, he or she must make such a request directly with Alaska Airlines. It will make reasonable accommodation decisions, not the Association. More on this process can be found [link removed]


From the beginning of the vaccination discussions, your MEC has stressed to management the need to be honest and transparent with pilots about their intentions, and to also engage with ALPA to ensure the interests of the pilots are represented. We are working hard to represent all points of view. ALPA is a bottom-up organization, guided by the collective membership. We have great respect for all of you, including your opinions, concerns, goals and needs. We will continue to reflect them all. The only proper path forward is to protect the careers of all pilots, and we challenge the Company to meet with us to achieve this requirement.
 
amichael said:
I'm not sure if our DALPA letter is public, so I googled it and found a FedEx one. These "Freedom Flyer" fools are wasting their time and money.

tldr: "The answer is, yes, an employer-imposed vaccine mandate is lawful." Backed up by 100 years of precedent.

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Literally day two of our new hire ground school they came in and gave us 5 vaccines that are required per the FOM. But suddenly this one makes people lose their poop.
 
Cory Trevor said:
The people on the OO forums that are anti vax are the same people that bitch about every other little change that happens. I really don’t think these people find joy in anything other than being pissed off and afraid
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The Freedom Flyers campaign at our company is being led by a guy who spent a couple weeks in the hospital recovering from COVID earlier this year. It wasn't the doctors who saved him, though; it was the grace of Christ. Which is ironic because he thinks he got it at a church function.
 
roundout said:
The Freedom Flyers campaign at our company is being led by a guy who spent a couple weeks in the hospital recovering from COVID earlier this year. It wasn't the doctors who saved him, though; it was the grace of Christ. Which is ironic because he thinks he got it at a church function.
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He's been quoted as saying,"I'd rather go through 1000 more ICU stays than take the shot"....

....this is why we can't have nice things
 
CFIT99 said:
He's been quoted as saying,"I'd rather go through 1000 more ICU stays than take the shot"....

....this is why we can't have nice things
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This is a joke, right? While conducting a line check yesterday I was told it’s just a matter of time before I develop Parkinson’s by the captain. It’s really something. Frankly, I’m tired of discussing this every time I get in the flight deck. Just quit already.
 
Ayork62493 said:
This is a joke, right? While conducting a line check yesterday I was told it’s just a matter of time before I develop Parkinson’s by the captain. It’s really something. Frankly, I’m tired of discussing this every time I get in the flight deck. Just quit already.
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I'm not sure a line check is the best place to discuss politics, especially when you're the one being checked.
 
Ayork62493 said:
This is a joke, right? While conducting a line check yesterday I was told it’s just a matter of time before I develop Parkinson’s by the captain. It’s really something. Frankly, I’m tired of discussing this every time I get in the flight deck. Just quit already.
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I swear by the St. Dacuj of Flow that this isn't a joke....I'll find his FB post (if he hasn't deleted already)
 
Crockrocket94 said:
Im pretty sure ever day is a captain complaining about the mandatory vaccine thing... a lot of guys are saying 'Screw it, Im going to retire"... well please do! But stop complaining about the thing and either retire or get the damn shot lol.
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All this.

“Here’s your chance”.

I just had an epiphany. Some of the same people that I knew that refused to fly to West Africa because of Malaria when they didn’t have access to Malarone (which screws with your color perception, makes you feel wonky and would pop the pills like candy) are some of the same ones that bitch about the gym being closed and how their body is some vaxless temple. Even though, in their days, no Yellow Fever, no international category.

But now they want pay protection.

I can’t believe we’re wasting dues dollars on this. It’s like the 2020 lockdown never happened.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Literally day two of our new hire ground school they came in and gave us 5 vaccines that are required per the FOM. But suddenly this one makes people lose their poop.
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Did you know what was in the vaccines before you took them?

roundout said:
The Freedom Flyers campaign at our company is being led by a guy who spent a couple weeks in the hospital recovering from COVID earlier this year. It wasn't the doctors who saved him, though; it was the grace of Christ. Which is ironic because he thinks he got it at a church function.
Click to expand...

@knot4u is gonna quote you SO hard!
 
roundout said:
The Freedom Flyers campaign at our company is being led by a guy who spent a couple weeks in the hospital recovering from COVID earlier this year. It wasn't the doctors who saved him, though; it was the grace of Christ. Which is ironic because he thinks he got it at a church function.
Click to expand...

Honestly it concerns me that we as a country seem to be sliding backwards intellectually into a “dark ages” line of thought. I don’t understand it at all.
 
GypsyPilot said:
Honestly it concerns me that we as a country seem to be sliding backwards intellectually into a “dark ages” line of thought. I don’t understand it at all.
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It isn't a recent phenomenon.

bookshop.org

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Revised) a book by Richard Hofstadter

Winner of the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction Anti-Intellectualism in American Life is a book which throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and...
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I don't write very well; I'll let someone like @Derg or @Boris Badenov throw in a little prose if they want. They probably already have, elsewhere. There are hundreds of articles and books with thousands of hours of reading on this subject.
 
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