Boeing suspends its vaccination mandate for US-based workers after court halts Biden's vaccine requirement for federal contractors

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Boeing suspended its COVID vaccination requirement for U.S.-based employees, the American plane-maker said on Friday, capping weeks of uncertainty as thousands of workers sought exemptions and challenges to a federal mandate that played out in court.

In an internal announcement, Boeing said its decision came after a review of a U.S. District Court ruling earlier this month that halted the enforcement of President Joe Biden's vaccine requirement for federal contractors.

Some big health care chains and companies such as General Electric, aircraft manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems and Amtrak have also suspended vaccine mandates for workers.

In recent weeks, the number of Boeing employees seeking a vaccine exemption on religious or medical grounds had reached more than 11,000 - or nearly 9 percent of its U.S. workforce - a level many times higher than executives initially estimated, Reuters first reported.

The fact that the vast majority of applications were on religious grounds thrust one of America's largest employers into the center of a debate about the ethics of probing an employee's religious beliefs.

Boeing said Friday that it was suspending its vaccination mandate for US-based workers

Boeing said its decision came after a review of a US District Court ruling earlier this month that halted the enforcement of President Joe Biden's vaccine requirement for federal contractors

It also left executives searching for a strategy that keeps employees safe, but avoids an exodus of engineering and factory labor.

Boeing's vaccination requirement has resulted in more than 92 percent of US-based workers having registered as being fully vaccinated, or having received a religious or medical accommodation, according to the Friday memo.

'The success of Boeing's vaccination requirement to date positions the company well to comply with the federal executive order should it be reinstated in the future,' it added.

A Boeing spokesperson confirmed the decision, and added that the company was 'committed to maintaining a safe working environment for our employees, and advancing the health and safety of our global workforce.'

Boeing suspended its vaccination requirement in line with the court's decision prohibiting enforcement of the federal contractor executive order and a number of state laws, the spokesperson added.

Last month, the White House pushed back to Jan. 4 its deadline for employees at federal contractors to be vaccinated or be tested regularly if they receive exemptions.

Transportation giant Amtrak also announced that they were suspending the vaccine requirement

General Electric is going to suspend the vaccination requirement for it's own US-based workers

Spirit AeroSystems, which makes several of the parts inside of Boeing's aircrafts, is also suspending the vaccine mandate

Though Boeing had a great deal of success to get a high number of workers vaccinated, there had been protests at the Washington-based airplane manufacturer dating back to October, when Boeing employees were reportedly planning a weekly 'sickout Fridays' protest against a new COVID-19 vaccine mandate.  

The vaccination requirement sparked outrage from some staffers, with protesters who claimed to work for Boeing seen in front of the manufacturer's factory in Everett, Washington.  

There there are now reports of a 'Sickout Fridays' protest by staff.

Journalist Jack Posobiec tweeted pictures of texts and flyers he said he had received from a Boeing employee in Seattle calling for workers to walk out once a week. 

'Boeing has acted in bad faith and new [sic] months ago the[y] we're going to mandate us at the end of the year,' the text reads.

'They are now leading the world to believe we have ample time to make a decision by Dec 8th. That's a lie.' 

'We are protesting at the union and we are now doing the #Freedomflu.'

It is not clear if any Boeing staff actually called out sick yesterday. 

Some Boeing employees appear to be planning a weekly protest against the airline giant's new COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Journalists have posted videos of people picketing in front of Boeing's Washington state factories and now there are reports of a new 'Sickout Fridays' in an attempt to buck the mandate

They're also known as #FreedomFlu Sickouts, as explained by one person who contacted a journalist about the protest

Jon Holden, president of International Association of Machinists (IAM) District 751, in his message to members in the October issue of the union paper, wrote that 'the reality is our members are polarized on this issue.'

The Machinist Union released a statement on Friday, acknowledging that the mandate is a divisive issue for its members, asking employees to choose 'between beliefs or their jobs.' The mandate does not allow for a testing option, unless approved for medical or religious exemption.

'We are not anti-vaccine, but we disagree with a vaccine mandate. We don't believe that is right,' the union wrote in its memo.

The union says it'll begin bargaining the effects of the decision with Boeing beginning on Friday.

Protesters were seen in front of Boeing's Washington state factory

Boeing said on Tuesday it will require its 125,000 US employees to be vaccinated by Dec. 8 under an executive order issued by President Joe Biden for federal contractors

'Compliance with these requirements is a condition of employment,' states a Boeing internal presentation from Tuesday viewed by reporters

President Joe Biden in September ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans — private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors — in an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant.

At the time, Biden sharply criticized the tens of millions of Americans who are not yet vaccinated, despite months of availability and incentives.

'We've been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,' he said, all but biting off his words. The unvaccinated minority 'can cause a lot of damage, and they are.'

Republican leaders — and some union chiefs, too — said Biden was going too far in trying to muscle private companies and workers, a certain sign of legal challenges to come. 

Companies applying the mandates to their employees include Amtrak, BlackRock, Cisco, Citigroup, CVS, Deloitte, Delta DoorDash, Equinox, Facebook, Ford, Goldman Sachs, Google, Lyft, McDonald's, MGM, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, NBCUniversal, Netflix, The New York Times, Twitter, Tyson Foods, Uber, United Airlines, Viacom, Walgrenes, the Walt Disney Company, Walmart and the Washington Post.  

President Joe Biden in September ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans in September