Texas governor bans employee vaccine mandates

On Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott took a stand against the Biden administration’s push to require COVID-19 vaccination or testing for employees of large companies.

Abbott issued an Executive Order on Monday that forbids any entity in the state of Texas to force a person to take the COVID-19 vaccination, “including an employee or consumer,” if the person objects “for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19.” The Executive Order applies to both private sector businesses and government/public agencies.

“The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective, and our best defense against the virus, but should remain voluntary and never forced,” Abbott said.

Abbott’s order was issued in response to a September statement issued by the Biden administration announcing a plan to require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work. Biden tasked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with implementing the COVID-19 requirements. Employers who do not comply with the vaccine/testing requirements are subject to a fine.

Additionally, Biden has signed an Executive Order requiring vaccination for all federal workers and for federal contractors.

The White House estimates that the vaccine mandate for large employers will affect over 80 million workers in private sector.

A significant portion of the trucking community is hesitant to vaccinate, with 26% of respondents in a CDLLife poll reporting that they’d prefer to be fired over taking the vaccine. Another 10.3% said they’d quit if they were told to get the jab. So far, few trucking companies have put vaccine policies in place for workers and it isn’t clear when Biden’s large employer vaccine rule will go into effect.