Inside United Airlines’ decision to mandate coronavirus vaccines

Scott Kirby, the CE of United Airlines, reached a breaking point while vacationing in Croatia this summer: After receiving word that a 57-year-old United pilot had died after contracting the coronavirus, he felt it was time to require all employees to get vaccinated. He paced for about half an hour and then called two of his top executives. “We concluded enough is enough,” Kirby said Thursday. “People are dying, and we can do something to stop that with United Airlines.” The company announced its vaccine mandate days later, kicking off a two-month process that ended last Monday. Kirby’s team had guessed that no more than 70% of the airline’s workers were already vaccinated, and the requirement helped convince most of the rest: Nearly all of United’s 67,000 US employees have been vaccinated, in one of the largest and most successful corporate efforts of the kind during the pandemic. The key to United’s success, even in states where vaccination rates are at or below the national average, like Texas and Florida, was a gradual effort that started with providing incentives and getting buy-in from employee groups, especially unions, which represent a majority of its workers. About 2,000 employees have applied for medical or religious exemptions, though their fate remains unclear as United fights a lawsuit over its plan to place them on temporary leave. A few hundred more failed to comply with the mandate and could be fired in coming weeks. When United announced its mandate in early August, it was part of a lonely group of large employers willing to broadly require vaccination. Story has more.<br/>