United CEO: Employer mandate is the best way to raise vaccination rates

United Airlines has achieved a high level of compliance with the strict vaccine mandate it set for its 67,000 US employees. But the airline's CEO doesn't believe expanding that requirement to passengers is a good idea. United CEO Scott Kirby said that about 90% of the company's employees have shown proof of their vaccination to the airline. He believes most of the rest have gotten the vaccine but just haven't gotten around to the uploading their verifications. And so far, very few employees have resigned rather than get vaccinated, he added. "In a large company, it's a handful," he said Thursday. "The ones I'm aware of are in the single digit number of people. We're going to have more by the time it finishes, but it's going to be a very low number of people." Concerns about losing vaccine hesitant employees in a very tight labor market is one of the factors keeping some employers from imposing a vaccine mandate. But last week President Joe Biden announced a federal mandate for companies with 100 or more employees to either require their workers get a vaccine or submit to weekly testing. Kirby said it's important to get as many people as possible vaccinated in order to end the pandemic and get the economy — and air travel — fully functioning again. But while travel between some countries requires proof of vaccination, Kirby isn't endorsing a vaccine mandate on domestic air travel or other forms of transportation. "I don't think [mandating vaccination for] air travel on its own will drive a huge increase in vaccination rates," he said. "I think this employer mandate will drive a really big increase."<br/>