On Tuesday, Jan. 25, the Biden Administration announced that it would withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine rule for employers with 100 or more employees, citing the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that blocked enforcement of the rule earlier this month.
“We are pleased to see the Administration acknowledging what we’ve been saying from the beginning – unilaterally imposing a vaccine mandate on millions of workers exceeds the White House’s authority,” said IBEW 1245 Business Manager Bob Dean. “The importance of vaccines is not up for debate, but the mandate was wrong on policy and wrong on principle, and I believe the Administration sees that now.”
IBEW 1245 has been outspoken in its opposition to the mandate since Day 1, viewing it as a significant infringement of workers’ rights. The union has been investigating numerous avenues to defend members against the mandate, and is currently working to file an amicus brief expressing its opposition to the federal employee/contractor mandate with the appropriate court(s) where legal action on that issue is pending.
“I said it before, and I’ll say it again – our rights as workers are as important in hard times as they are in good times,” said Dean. “As advocates for workers, we view this as a notable victory, and we are hopeful that the Administration will soon withdraw its challenges to the lower court decisions that blocked enforcement of the federal contractor and federal employee mandates as well.”