‘No one’s going to leave American over this:’ CEO says ‘vast majority’ of employees vaccinated

No workers will be leaving America because of a federal mandate requiring workers to be vaccinated, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told CNBC Thursday morning.

Parker, speaking from American Airlines headquarters in Fort Worth, said the vast majority of employees are already vaccinated against COVID-19 and that he doesn’t expect many employees to remain unvaccinated or with no religious or medical exception when the deadline expires is November 24th.

“We don’t want anyone to leave America, nobody,” said Parker. “Nobody is going to leave America because of it.”

Airlines

Hundreds of people demonstrate at Southwest Airlines headquarters against vaccination regulations for employees

Hundreds of employees and customers gathered outside Southwest Airlines’ headquarters in Dallas on Monday, two weeks after the company said all workers would need to be vaccinated to keep their jobs. The protest follows a similar rally at American Airlines on October 7th in Fort Worth, and a week after conspiracy theories were spread that blamed thousands of cancellations and delays a week ago for a pilots’ strike to protest vaccine mandates, something Both Southwest and the Union Pilots advocate stubbornly denied it.

Parker’s comments come after weeks of turmoil from employees, passengers, and political activists who view vaccination requirements as a corporate and government violation. Employees gathered outside American Airlines headquarters two weeks ago and many said they would rather be fired than vaccinated.

The airline has announced that it will begin termination of employment for employees who fail to meet their deadline, but Parker said he hopes few workers will get to that point.

“What I fully suspect is that we’re coming to the 24th and not very many people are going to go unvaccinated,” said Parker. “Those who are not will almost certainly be given a religious or medical exemption, and we will continue to work with those who are not.”

Parker said the number of employees vaccinated had increased every day since it announced earlier this month it would meet the White House mandate that requires federal entrepreneurs to vaccinate all employees by December 8.

The American is struggling to keep the White House’s vaccination mandate while appeasing disgruntled employees and unions, not to mention political activists and customers with strong views.

Most recently, American said it would not allow employees given religious or medical exemption to take unpaid leave, but plan to have them wear masks, wear social distancing, and take regular COVID-19 tests.

Dallas-based competitor Southwest Airlines has taken a similar stance, while Chicago-based United ordered employee vaccinations prior to government mandate and touted the success of its program.

“I hope every airline will stop pulling out and vaccinating everyone like United Airlines did,” said Scott Kirby, United CEO, in a call to investors on Wednesday. “And so that it does not become a competitive advantage for us, because it is without question the right thing.”

The news came as American Airlines posted a profit of $ 169 million for the first quarter on Thursday, but only after receiving $ 1.04 billion from the latest round of state payrolls. The company’s revenue of $ 9 billion was 20% higher than the second quarter.

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