Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

In early August, United Airlines became the first U.S. based company to require all of their domestic employees to receive their COVID-19 vaccination. At the time they announced the implementation of the new vaccination policy, about 90 percent of pilots and 80 percent of flight attendants were already vaccinated. Proof of vaccination is required by Monday, October 4th, 2021. 

The company will also be requiring all students at its flight school to receive their vaccination before attending. 

United Airlines employs around 67,000 people domestically, and the company has stated that more than 99 percent of its U.S.-based employees have met the company’s requirement to get vaccinated, or have applied for a religious or medical exemption.

The 593 employees who have refused to comply with vaccination, and who have also refused to submit a medical or religious exemption, are now facing termination. The firing process will be extensive and has the potential to take several weeks, beginning Tuesday October 5th. 

The company has stated that these employees still have the opportunity to avoid termination if they receive the first shot of their vaccination prior to their formal meeting for vaccination noncompliance. 

Nearly 2,000 United employees have filed for an exemption from the policy based on medical or religious reasoning, which totals to less than 3 percent. Originally, all employees who filed for an exemption were supposed to be placed on temporary, unpaid leave, as of October 2nd. However, 4 United Airlines employees have filed lawsuits against the policy, so the company has pushed the date unvaccinated employees are supposed to be put on leave to October 15th due to the ongoing lawsuit. 

“For the less than 1 percent of people who decided to not get vaccinated, we’ll unfortunately begin the process of separation from the airline per our policy,” Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart told employees in a memo to employees that went out prior to the vaccine requirement date. 

The memo goes on to thank, “…the tens of thousands of employees who got their shot,” and stated that “…We know for some, that decision was a reluctant one. But there’s no doubt in our minds that some of you will have avoided a future hospital stay – or even death – because you got vaccinated.”

The company stands by its decision to begin requiring vaccines, for not only employee safety but for the safety of every passenger who wishes to ride with United Airlines. 

“This is a historic achievement for our airline and our employees as well as for the customers and communities we serve,” continued Kirby and Hart in their employee memo.

“Our rationale for requiring the vaccine for all United’s U.S.-based employees was simple — to keep our people safe — and the truth is this: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated, and vaccine requirements work.”

With United Airlines firing employees, many people have questioned how they plan to replace them, and what vaccination requirements will be like for new hires. The company has expressed that all new hires will be required to have a COVID-19 vaccination. 

United is also not concerned with their vaccination policy while they are hiring, because they do not expect to struggle finding employees who will comply with the policy and receive their vaccinations. 

United has reported that they received 700 applications for about 400 job postings last month at a Denver career fair. Additionally,  the company has received more than 20,000 applications for nearly 2,000 available positions for flight attendants.