As time draws closer to reality for millions of Americans potentially affected by the Biden administration’s employer vaccine mandate, reports continue to surface about special carve-outs and exemptions from the broad measure aimed at increasing Covid-19 vaccination rates. On Monday, we discussed how two large parts of the federal government were exempt from President Biden’s measure, Congress and the Federal Court system. This means thousands of employees, who are clearly federal employees, will not fall under the mandate imposed on private businesses.
Now, we’re learning about more ways in which individuals under federal control and jurisdiction will be exempt from Biden’s vaccine mandate that otherwise forces businesses with at least 100 employees to vaccinate their workforce, or impose weekly Covid testing, or risk hefty fines for non-compliance.
The United States Postal Service, while a federal entity, operates as a federally-owned business. The postal workers are classified as federal employees, but, so far, have escaped President Biden’s earlier order requiring all federal workers to be vaccinated with no option to avoid the shot with weekly testing.
Even in light of President Biden’s private business employer mandate, the USPS is still taking a “wait and see” approach and avoiding any movement toward mandating a Covid-19 vaccination on postal workers:
The U.S. Postal Service is not committing to implementing any COVID-19 vaccine mandate—full or partial—for its workforce, with an agency spokesman saying officials will first need to see the fine print of new requirements President Biden has issued.
Biden’s executive order mandating the vaccines for the federal workforce took a somewhat narrow definition of agencies that carved out USPS, which employs more than 640,000 people. The president on Thursday also announced the Labor Department would put forward a rule directing all employers with more than 100 workers to require their staff to either be vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. USPS said on Friday it was still determining whether the rule would apply to the agency.
“The COVID-19 vaccination requirements included in the White House executive order issued on September 9, 2021 for federal employees do not apply to the Postal Service,” said Dave Partenheimer, a USPS spokesman. “Regarding other vaccination rules expected to be issued by the federal government, the Postal Service has no comment until those rules are issued and we have had a chance to review them.”
In other words, despite a standing federal vaccine mandate for all federal employees, and an impending vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees, the Postal Service still has no formal plans to require the same standard for its own workforce. As the story notes, some 640,000 people work for the postal service and do so as federal employees.
The most obvious reason for the USPS taking liberty and avoiding a vaccine mandate is because it fears a drastic exodus of employees who would rather quit than be forced into taking a Covid-19 vaccination. The union representing postal workers is also opposed to a vaccine mandate:
The American Postal Workers Union, which represents more than 200,000 USPS employees, previously denounced vaccine mandates and said any issues related to the inoculations or testing must be negotiated with the union.
“Maintaining the health and safety of our members is of paramount importance,” APWU stated. “While the APWU leadership continues to encourage postal workers to voluntarily get vaccinated, it is not the role of the federal government to mandate vaccinations for the employees we represent.”
As a result, the APWU, which holds a lot of power in this instance, is undoubtedly working behind the scenes to at least delay or defer any vaccine requirement on the USPS workforce. As with many businesses right now, the labor market is difficult and you don’t have to look far to find stories of the postal service already strained for workers.
A vaccine mandate on the USPS would surely lead to some labor shortfalls and increase delays and problems within an organization already trying to keep up with increased shipping demand.
Another area of federal jurisdiction where vaccine mandates apply to some but not all has to do with migrant processing centers along the U.S. southern border. When asked recently, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that migrants seeking refuge in the United States were not required to be vaccinated as part of their processing:
“Our objective is to get as many people vaccinated across the country as humanly possible, and so the president’s announcement yesterday was an effort to empower businesses to give businesses the tools to protect their workforces,” Psaki said Friday. “That’s exactly what we did, but certainly we want everybody to get vaccinated, and more people are vaccinated, whether they are migrants or whether they are workers, protects more people in the United States.”
“But it’s a requirement for people at a business with more than 100 people, but it’s not a requirement for migrants at the southern border. Why?” a reporter asked.
“That’s correct,” Psaki said before immediately moving to a different reporter.
The last part in bold is the most stunning part. Despite specific recommendations and requirements from the Centers for Disease Control describing requirements that migrants and refugees must be vaccinated to enter the country, the federal government is not requiring it when individuals cross the border illegally and become detained.
Perhaps more puzzling is that U.S. Border Patrol agents are already required to be vaccinated with no option for weekly testing under President Biden’s federal vaccine mandate.
Once again, a broad vaccine mandated intended to apply across the board doesn’t apply equally despite places where it logically should. If American workers can be forced to receive a vaccination or submit to weekly testing to keep a job, why shouldn’t the same be required of postal workers or migrants seeking to enter this country?
The problem of labor shortages and workers deciding to quit rather than be forced into vaccination will only continue to grow. There are already plenty of stories about hospitals with staff shortages due to nurses quitting rather than be forced into a vaccination they don’t wish to receive.
As OSHA, the agency tasked with implementing Biden’s vaccine mandate, draws closer to releasing the nuts and bolts of implementing this requirement, expect the situation to reach a boiling point in many facets of the economy.
