The Supreme Court's decision that large companies don't have to force workers to get coronaviruses shots or tests has employees wondering how the high court's ruling will affect them.
Carhartt's CEO Mark Valade sent an email to his workers a day after the Supreme Court ruling to clarify that vaccinations remained compulsory.
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Valade wrote in an email Friday that the Supreme Court's recent ruling doesn't affect the company's core value of workplace safety. The medical community believes that vaccines are necessary to ensure a safe working environment for every associate and even their households.
An unvaccinated workforce is both a people and business risk that our company is unwilling to take.
While the email has been celebrated by Carhartt fans supportive of its health and safety measures, some conservatives and anti-vaccine pundits have targeted the company on social media in what appears to be the latest attempt to shame and boycott a company over its mandatory coronaviruses vaccination policy for employees. In recent months, the company has faced protests from employees opposed to the vaccine policy.
The host of the right-wing network, the Blaze, said that he should stop buying their products.
Carhartt spokeswoman Amy Hellebuyck told The Washington Post that Valade sent an internal email to employees as part of their commitment to workplace safety.
The Supreme Court ruling does not affect the mandate we put in place, she said in a statement. Carhartt understands and respects differing opinions on this topic, and we are aware some of our associates do not. We are behind our decision because we believe vaccines are necessary to protect our workforce.
The company's stance comes on the heels of a blow to the federal government's most far-reaching initiative to combat COVID-19 and boost the country's lagging vaccination rate. The decision last week by the Supreme Court's conservative majority, which said Congress had not given OSHA the power to impose the sweeping vaccination-or-testing requirement in large workplaces nationwide, affects 84 million employees, more than half the U.S. labor force.
The court allowed a different and smaller policy to go forward, requiring vaccinations for most health-care workers at facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funds.
President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was disappointed the court ruled against the administration on the workplace rules, but called on business leaders to "institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities." The Washington Post requires employees to show proof of vaccination.
According to data tracked by The Post, the country has an average of 724,000 new coronaviruses infections a day, a decline from the previous seven-day average.
A majority of the country is fully vaccineed. The Biden administration had hoped that the OSHA requirements would force 20 million more workers to get the vaccine.
Carhartt said last year that it would require employees to be vaccine free by January 4. The company said it would review requests for medical or religious exemptions and let employees know by the end of the month.
A group of workers in Kentucky objected to the company's policy. A group of workers at a plant in Hanson, Kentucky, believed that Carhartt crossed the line by making vaccinations mandatory.
Lance Gary, an employee of Carhartt, told WEHT that he thinks it should be a choice. Carhartt has made it mandatory.
A similar demonstration took place a few days later in Madisonville. Carhartt workers waved flags, held signs and blasted songs to shine a light on the company's vaccine policy.
All of us associates have been through the Pandemic. "We've been loyal, we've been faithful, and now all of a sudden it's like, 'You've got to comply,'" said a benefits specialist with Carhartt. We love working for Carhartt, but we feel like this decision is wrong.
Valade wrote last week that workers in two Carhartt locations, including Madisonville, had been given extensions to get their vaccinations.
The attention surrounding the company's vaccine policy was amplified Tuesday after a screenshot of Valade's email was widely shared by conservative pundits. The workwear brand was once championed by Republican politicians such as Sarah Palin.
Buy from "Went Carhartt" to " Bye Carhartt" real quick!
Some made baseless claims that the company's policy was a form of medical abuse, but others pointed out that Carhartt had the right to require employees to get vaccine.
If you don't want to follow their policies, quit. Carmine Sabia wrote that this is a free market. I don't want the government to mandate what a business can and cannot do.
It's not the first time in recent months that a popular apparel company has found itself in the middle of an issue related to politics or public health. The owners of a Wyoming ski resort hosted a Republican Party event in support of former president Donald Trump, which led to the decision by Patagonia to stop selling its products there. After the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort fundraiser, she was again suspended from the social networking site after she made a false claim about the vaccine's effectiveness.
Carhartt was applauded for sticking with its mandate despite the Supreme Court ruling. If conservatives were willing to let go of their Carhartt clothing during a cold spell, Roy Wood Jr. recognized how angry they would be.
He wondered if they were throwing out the Carhartt in the dead of winter. They are mad.
John Schwartz, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said the leaked email about employee vaccinations earned Carhartt some more business.
He liked Carhartt gear. Might be time to buy more.
Robert Barnes was involved in the report.
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