Southwest CEO says he never wanted a Covid vaccine mandate but Biden forced his hand

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said Tuesday he believes businesses should not impose Covid vaccine mandates on their employees, but he said his company is doing so to comply with federal rules put in place by the Biden administration. “I’ve never been in favor of corporations imposing that kind of a mandate. I’m not in favor of that. Never have been,” Kelly said. “But the executive order from President Biden mandates that all federal employees and then all federal contractors, which covers all the major airlines, have to have a [vaccine] mandate ... in place by Dec. 8, so we’re working through that.”Southwest said last week that its 56,000 employees needed to be vaccinated against Covid by Dec. 8 in order to keep working at the airline under the federal mandate. Southwest’s announcement came a few days after other carriers — including American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways — informed employees about the need to adhere to federal vaccine rules. In August, before the Biden administration’s action, United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines instituted Covid vaccine requirements for their staffs. United said earlier this month that more than 96% of its 67,000 US employees have shared proof of vaccination after its late September deadline. Southwest started to offer incentives such as extra pay to spur uptake of the coronavirus vaccine in mid-September, following in the footsteps of other carriers such as Delta Air Lines, American and United. Delta later said that starting Nov. 1 unvaccinated workers would have to pay an extra $200 per month for company health insurance.<br/>