Washington | October 18, 2021
Hundreds of Boeing Workers Protest in Washington State After Company Tells Workers They Must Be Vaccinated
Washington | October 18, 2021
Hundreds of Boeing Co employees protested in Washington state on Friday after the company told workers they must be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Roughly 200 workers gathered in protest outside of the company’s Renton and Everett locations just days after the planemaker announced the new mandate.
On Oct. 12, the planemaker announced that employees must be vaccinated by Dec. 8 in line with the deadline set by President Joe Biden requiring federal employees as well as companies that are contractors and subcontractors of the government to receive the shots.
The policy will apply to roughly 125,000 employees in the United States, of which about 57,000 are in Washington state, The Seattle Times reported.
“To ensure compliance with President Biden’s executive order for federal contractors, Boeing is requiring its U.S.-based employees to either show proof of vaccination or have an approved reasonable accommodation, based on a disability or sincerely held religious belief, by Dec. 8,” a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement to The Epoch Times…. (Excerpts from Epoch Times)
Washington | August 26, 2021
Nurses Warn of Staff Shortages Due to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
Washington | August 26, 2021
A nationwide shortage of nurses and health care workers may soon worsen as thousands of medical staff face losing their jobs by refusing to obey new COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“It will be really terrible. We’re already understaffed,” said one veteran registered nurse who works at a health care facility north of Seattle.
She said she will lose her job after her employer’s Aug. 31 mandated vaccine goes into effect unless she complies with the requirement.
She estimates that as many as 400—20 percent—of the health center’s 2,500 employees refuse to take the vaccine. That number will likely shrink due to the financial hardship of job loss, she said, though “even losing 5 percent would be devastating to the community,” she told The Epoch Times.
The nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said her only solution is if her employer grants her a religious exemption, which appears unlikely at this point…. (Excerpts from the Epoch Times)
Washington | June 21, 2021
Washington offering cash, gift cards in vaccine lottery for national guard
Washington | June 21, 2021
Members of the Washington National Guard will get a shot at winning more than $450,000 in prizes for the price of a COVID shot, Gov. Jay Inslee has announced.
Like the ongoing vaccine lottery for the general public, the contest will randomly choose a winner from among a pool of vaccinated National Guard members and their families. The military lottery, dubbed “A Heroes Thanks,” begins on July 20.
Over three weeks, the state will award three cash prizes. The first two total $100,000 each. The third and final grand prize amounts to $250,000. Several gift cards and state park passes are also being included as prizes.
Members of the military and their families who got their shot through the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or the National Guard will have to enter to win. Both groups were left out of the vaccine lottery for the general public announced earlier this month. Invitations to enter will be sent out to those eligible by the U.S. Department of Defense to deter fraud.
The governor announced the giveaways during a Thursday, hailing it as a last-ditch effort to bump the state’s vaccination rates to 70% by the end of June. Just two weeks ago, Inslee unveiled the state’s “Shot of a Lifetime” lottery, which is offering $2 million in prizes. Cities like Pasco offer their own incentives, including $50 Visa gift cards for anyone getting a shot at Columbia Basin College this month. Rural regions like Franklin County continue to lag 12 percentage points behind the state’s climbing vaccination rates.
On Thursday, the Washington Department of Health (DOH) reported vaccines had made it into 67.8% of Washingtonian arms 16 and older, 140,000 people short of the 70% benchmark Inslee set for the state to end most mitigations…
(Excerpts from the Washington Examiner)