Latest

Carhartt takes major heat for sticking with employee vax mandate despite SCOTUS ruling

January 20, 2022 | | Print Article

Social media is slamming Carhartt for keeping its employee vaccine mandate in place after the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s attempt to require employees at large businesses to either take the jab or submit to regular testing.

“We put workplace safety at the very top of our priority list, and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling doesn’t impact that core value,” Carhartt CEO Mark Valade wrote in an email to employees last Friday. “We, and the medical community, continue to believe vaccines are necessary to ensure a safe working environment for every associate and even, perhaps, their households.”

A copy of the message quickly began circulating on social media, and the backlash was swift.

The company, which specializes in rugged clothing for the outdoorsy types, “made the decision to implement its own vaccine mandate as part of our long-standing commitment to workplace safety,” Carhartt told FOX Business on Wednesday, adding that “the Supreme Court ruling does not affect the mandate” that the company put in place on Jan. 4.

The move comes as omicron continues to sweep across the States, accounting for more than 99% of new COVID-19 U.S. cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), despite the CDC’s recent admission that the vaccinated can still spread the virus.

“CDC expects that anyone with Omicron infection can spread the virus to others, even if they are vaccinated or don’t have symptoms,” it confirmed in late December.

Carhartt maintains that, while it “fully understands and respects the varying opinions on this topic,” it ultimately believes “vaccines are necessary to protect our workforce.”

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority concluded the Biden administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with more than 100 employees.

“The Supreme Court’s decision on the OSHA mandate essentially means that, in this pandemic, it is up to individual employers to determine whether their workplaces will be safe for employees and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters following the SCOTUS decision.

This hasn’t stopped Biden from continuing to push businesses to institute their own vaccination requirements.

With more than 3,000 U.S. employees, Carhartt did grant a number of accommodation requests for medical and religious reasons, but states the vast majority of its workforce is or is in the process of becoming “fully vaccinated.”

No word as of yet on how many boosters will be required for its employees to maintain that status.

Meanwhile, the hashtag “Boycott Carhartt” has exploded among angry consumers on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/Potatothirst/status/1483338934973190145?s=20

Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles