WASHINGTON — Amtrak has extended the deadline for its workers to receive COVID-19 vaccinations to Dec. 8, CEO Bill Flynn said today in a message to employees — and is preparing for possible service reductions if workers leave the company rather than receiving the vaccination.
The new date aligns Amtrak’s deadline, which previously had been Nov. 10, with the date set under the federal executive order covering federal contractors.
Flynn’s message says the company plans to publish a revised service schedule in mid-November, based on the vaccination rate at that time, to reflect possible temporary reductions reflecting a reduced number of employees. That schedule will take effect in December.
To date, more than 80% of Amtrak employees have received at least one shot.
The company permit employees to have received at one shot by Dec. 8 to remain in service pending completion of full vaccination status, but they must provide proof they have received their final shot by Jan. 10, 2022 “to avoid termination of employment.” Those who fail to submit proof of having received at least one shot by Dec. 8 “will be considered insubordinate (in violation of Amtrak policy) — with the termination process to begin immediately.”
The letter also notes that those whose request for a religious accommodation is approved will be offered unpaid time off as the accommodation. “Everyone should understand that an accommodation protects your employment status with Amtrak,” Flynn writes, “but does not guarantee that you can keep working at Amtrak and collecting pay without getting vaccinated.”
Covid-19 was created by the Chinese with US funding, there corrected it.
The NEC has had the poorest recovery of the three groups from the pandemic if they are going to rely on the return of the business traveler to justify the NEC’s existence solely without the national network they’re sadly mistake, the pandemic has exposed the true weakness of the NEC a region that already has abundant travel/communication options.
Thanksgiving weekend is the busiest travel period in the NEC (I once rose a string of MP54 MU cars representing an advance section of the Midday Congressional on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving)
This moves the vaccine deadline from before the heavy travel to after.
Trains staff: do your research about FJB Another one they may try to slip by you is “Let’s go Branden”. They are insults directed at Joe Biden. While I may feel the same way about their boy Donnie I would never post them in this forum.
papers please, sound familiar? thats where FJB and his democraps are taking us. wake up! getting the jab should be your choice and not the democraps or your employer. I hope on Dec. 8th everyone walks off the job, jabbed and unjabbed . I would encourage it!
AMEN
Mike Lustig
The Federal Government demands that anyone doing business hire only vaccinated workers.
Since when does one customer dictate to a contractor? Suppose a company ships ten loads of whatever. Does that customer tell the railroad how to run its entire business? However if the customer is Joe Biden, one of the world’s worst people, he does.
Oh yeah Charles, and Donald Trump and the Republican Party he has a lock on are real small “d” democrats, huh? I’m no fan of President Biden. That he became the Democratic Presidential candidate for 2020 is proof the only thing the Ds do well is torpedoing their own ship. But the people on the other side you and Mr. Rose seem to revere, if they become the dominant political force you and everyone else can kiss American democracy, freedom of speech, the press, religion, and everything else goodbye. And this kind of discussion shouldn’t be on the Newswire Comment line but it is.
It is not the fault of the unvaccinated. If vaccines worked so well then what’s the concern about those refusing to get an experimental shot that was only authorized under a EUA? Which the law says one has the OPTION OF TAKING IT OR NOT. This is nothing but a political power play and money filling certain pockets.
I agree. The Covid-19 virus “vaccines” should be referred to as “shoots”, as they showing themselves to be as reliable and effective as the Flu Shoot; and we do not mandate them. Every “vaccinated” person has enrolled in the largest Phase III trial that a drug company has ever conducted. I.e. human guinea pigs. Sure, I am thankful for them, but why coverup the adverse reactions? Why is there limited mention about natural immunity for those, who had and recovered from Covid? And no credit from the mandate for the suffering and subsequent immunity? What percentage of the vaccinated had Covid? Enough that the country is at “Herd Immunity” and so, we may go back to a modified “normal”?
Mr. McGuire, I agree with you regarding my fingering Flynn and Gardner up to a point. What I’m getting at is they did an ugly and disgraceful thing with the service reductions and layoffs in October 2020. That set the stage in part to what we are seeing now. Even before this latest, Flynn and Gardner were claiming the shortened consists/greatly shrunk inventory they put on the LDs was necessitated by not having enough OBS (and maybe operating crews too). They said not enough of the furloughed employees answered the call to return to service to allow operating the consists as they were before the tri-weekly service and layoffs went into effect. But Trains columnist Bob Johnson wrote in his “Coming Back” article in the November issue “Amtrak’s initial estimates for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2020 mistakenly assumed travelers would abandon long distance trains so the company sidelined equipment to save costs.” And of course they “sidelined” the train crews and the car maintenance forces to go with it. IMHO Flynn and Gardner didn’t “mistakenly assume” the riders would not return. They didn’t want that ridership to return or they would have taken a different course, like retaining daily operation with somewhat reduced consists/ inventory and reducing the number of days in a week each crew worked but allowed enough to avoid furloughs. Flynn and Gardner only want to run the service that is least likely to have “bread and butter” of its ridership, the business travelers, return to pre-pandemic levels; the Northeast Corridor. And that I believe is the sad truth.
Every day there is news about airlines adding domestic and international routes and beefing up services. Most of these airlines are also requiring employee vaccination. How can it be they are going in a positive growth direction and Amtrak is planning on service cuts?
I don’t think it is Flynn and Gardner that are the problem here. It is the employees who refuse to get the vaccine that are the problem. If a large number of the unvaccinated 20% decide to quit work and sit at home then what is Amtrak to do if they don’t have enough employees to operate. Personally now that employees won’t be vaccinated until January 10 then that is the first date that I will consider an Amtrak trip. But it probably won’t happen that soon, I’ll wait until Amtrak requires all passengers to be vaccinated as well as employees. I can get to where I’m going faster on the plane and more conveniently in my truck and depending on my destination more cheaply on either.
This is it, folks. This is the end. If Flim Flam Flynn and Gestapo Gardner cut service below the skeletal service (to say the least) that exists now it just isn’t worth it. Can’t wait to see what NARP/RPA and their state affiliates have to to say in the Hotline News coming out tomorrow.