The Frightened 500
Complicity and cowardice from America's top CEOs on vaccine mandates.
Corporations, and their leaders, often talk about being brave. They love to stand up at marketing summits, pat each other on the back and signal their corporate virtue. They pretend to take “courageous” moral stands and champion du jour issues like social justice and the environment.
Yet the truth is, corporations are anything but brave.
I would know. I’ve worked with some of the biggest corporations in America for 20 plus years. I’ve sat in rooms with many Fortune 500 leaders - very few are what I would call brave. Most are risk averse in the extreme.
The reality is, corporations only take a stand on a particular issue, when they perceive that stand to be popular or somehow advantageous. The latest example? The stunning silence from Fortune 500 CEOs on vaccine mandates, which they’re instituting due to pressure from an authoritarian Federal Government.
Company after company, is callously kicking loyal employees to the curb. For example, United Airlines is beginning to place hundreds (according to sources, perhaps far more) of employees on unpaid leave unless they comply with the company’s mandates. According to United, unvaccinated employees will have an opportunity to apply for non-customer-facing roles. (Again, according to sources, whether these reassignments will happen at any scale remains to be seen). In other words, many hundreds of United employees will likely lose their livelihoods. Some have been with the company for years, if not decades.
United’s says they’re all about that new corporate value called “Equity”. They’re making it “part of their DNA”, according to their website. Really? The CEO of United Airlines made $16,779,500 last year. About 400 times what the average United flight attendant makes ($42,159) and roughly 60-70 times what the average pilot takes home. Yet during the height of the pandemic, pilots, crews and attendants came to work for United Airlines before any vaccine was available. These frontline workers dutifully clocked in each day before the virus was even well understood. United’s C-suite likely came to work via zoom, as did most in America’s corporate leadership during that time. United’s frontline employees faithfully served the airline at risk to themselves. So why won’t United Airlines - or any Fortune 500 company, for that matter - take a risk and courageously stand up for some of these same employees now? You know, practice some of that equity and fairness these corporations say they believe in.
The airline that talks a lot about “love”, Southwest Airlines, isn’t much better. The CEO says he’s not in favor of vaccine mandates, but is mandating them anyways. Sounds principled. Recently he’s assured employees no one will be fired, but the company originally planned to put the unvaccinated on unpaid leave, which is basically like being fired. SWAPA (Southwest Airlines Pilot Association) claims that despite having a collective bargaining agreement that forbids Southwest from acting unilaterally, the leadership has done exactly that: unilaterally proceeded with the mandates anyways. That hasn’t stopped the Southwest CEO from schooling his employees on the “golden rule”. He says they should treat others as they would like to be treated. Apparently, punishing employees for resisting unconstitutional mandates - that even the CEO says he doesn’t agree with - is how he would like to be treated. Maybe Southwest Airline’s “heart” is just a cheap lapel pin, after all. Because clearly, when push comes to shove, what Southwest Airlines really loves is their federal contracts.
Yet this is not about the CEOs of United Airlines or Southwest. They’re just examples. It’s about the deafening collective silence from Fortune 500 CEOs across America. Wherever one stands on the COVID vaccine itself, coercing employees to put something in their body against their will, by threatening their very livelihoods, is reprehensible. Especially when it’s now clear: regardless of vaccination status, everyone can get the virus and spread it. And anyone who wants to be vaccinated, can do so and be protected from severe outcomes, according to the CDC. And weekly testing for unvaccinated workers, even at their own expense, is a viable alternative. Also, when did employees’ personal healthcare suddenly become one-size-fits-all? And why are companies ignoring the scientific reality of natural immunity? Certainly, many employees, especially ones on the frontlines, like nurses and EMTs, have already had COVID. Understandably, some don’t wish to take the vaccine at this time. There are also conscientious objectors and the rare person who has a condition that might preclude them from taking the vaccine.
But finally, and most importantly, OSHA has frozen both the enforcement and implementation after the ruling by the 5th Circuit of Appeals who put a stay on the mandate, stating that it’s unconstitutional. So there’s no hiding behind OSHA’s federal mandates anymore. Fortune 500 CEOs, if you’re mandating that your employees are vaccinated and threatening their livelihoods if they won’t comply, it’s on you. And by the way, if there’s a rare adverse reaction in an employee who you strong-armed into taking it, will your corporation be accepting liability?
That the Federal Government might overreach on issues of personal choice and freedom, is one thing. That corporations would coerce their employees is what is truly shocking. Yet, so far, it appears the vast majority of corporations are all too willing to do exactly that. Even if it means throwing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of loyal, hard-working employees under the bus - all during a labor shortage.
Real courage would be if just one of these Fortune 500 CEOs said “no”. If just one CEO would take the unpopular, but brave stand and speak up for their employees who are vaccine-hesitant, for whatever reason. Stand up for your employee’s bodily autonomy. Stand up against medical segregation and the taking of employees’ livelihoods. Stand up against an overreaching government that is establishing a disturbing, unconstitutional precedent that may align with your beliefs today, but may not tomorrow.
If anyone had the power and the means to press the case for people’s bodily autonomy, it’s the fortunate CEOs who make tens of millions a year. They are in a financial position to take a risk, while most of their employees are not. Is there even one that would be willing to take this unpopular, but necessary stand? To take this fight to the court of public opinion, and the actual courts, on behalf of their employees and all Americans?
The leaders we admire - even in the private sector - are courageous. They’re willing to take unpopular stands. They’re willing to take the hit for their employees. If no Fortune 500 CEOs will step up for the least of their employees - and right now that’s the vaccine hesitant among them - so be it.
But please, Fortune 500 CEOs, in the future don’t refer to any actions you or your corporation takes as “brave”, “moral” or “courageous”. The time to prove that you’re any one of those things - as a company or leader - is now.
(A special acknowledgment of Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian. Bastian said this last month: “We’re proving that you can work collaboratively with your people, trusting your people to make the right decisions, respecting their decisions and not forcing them over the loss of their jobs.” Bastian should be applauded.
*According to SWAPA (Southwest Airlines Pilots Association), Southwest Airlines says they will offer exemptions to their company mandate on a limited basis. However, the presence of anti-bodies will not qualify as an exemption.)