CHICAGO — Norfolk Southern will require its workers to be vaccinated for COVID-19, and has filed a lawsuit in an effort to block legal action by unions representing employees.
Reuters reports the railroad filed the suit in a federal court in Chicago on Thursday, arguing that union objection to the mandate must be addressed through arbitration, rather than court action, because they involve interpretation of existing agreements, rather than changes to those agreements. The suit said the railroad had enacted the vaccine mandate a day earlier, citing an executive order requiring vaccination for federal contractors.
Union Pacific cited the same executive order in announcing its vaccine requirement earlier in the month, and filed a similar suit against three unions after the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) sued UP [see “Unions, Union Pacific file suits over vaccination requirement,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 20, 2021].
NS said it believed the unions would object based on prior statements, and that some workers and threatened walkouts, sick-outs, or work slowdowns because of the mandate. The railroad set a Dec. 8 deadline for employees to be vaccinated.
The purpose of Unions, are to protect its membership, and that is what they are doing.
Forcing employees to get the vaccine, is not part of managements responsibility. This is still a free country, and people should be allowed to make their own decisions on the virus vaccine. After two years, people certainly know that not everyone dies from the virus.
Perhaps a narrower interpretation is what we need. Certain railroads are government contractors for passenger services, i.e., Amtrak and/or commuter service. Employees directly involved in those operations would have to be vaccinated. Those performing common carrier functions, such as general freight service, could be exempt.
It’s very sad to see that the misinformation and outright BS around the effectiveness of the Covid Vaccine have worked there way onto this site. For those of you who don’t want the vaccine then don’t get it. You will be the one to suffer the consequences. Those may include losing your job, getting sick or dying. Unfortunately I’ve lost several close friends and a younger brother to Covid. All of them had one underlying condition. That being that they were hard headed and listened to the wrong people. So if you get the shot good if you don’t get it that’s fine to. But this site isn’t the place to post your anti-vaccine propaganda.
Well said
It is easy to understand how a country such as Germany and other countries fell into authoritarian control as one watches the interesting and, indeed, distressing social manifestations of the scare. Media hustles the populace into a state of anxiety with a constant drumbeat of doomsday and vaccines are dispensed from the pharma industry like lollipops. It is a health scare industry. Given the well established danger from the jab in question and given the principle of individual rights, there must be organized push back to these efforts to control citizens, whether it be the nonsensical masks or more intrusive mandates. If you want to subscribe to these things I guess it is your business. It is my business to decide whether they are appropriate, or not, for me.
Well said.
The death rate and hospitalization rates from COVID who are vaccinated still get covid are much lower than the rate of people who get covid and are not vaccinated. Also the people who are vaccinated are much less likely to spread COVID as well. Good for NS.
What is regretful is that Covid came to us in 2020, an election year and has become a political football. Our devisivness and social media has only made it worse. While I pretty much agree with the comments above, I am not happy with mandates for anyone. But as long as the present red and blue mentality exists, I doubt anything will change.
Let’s take off the rose colored glasses of bad information. First, the COVID shot is not a vaccine. A vaccine keeps you from getting a disease, such as polio or measles. The COVID is a shot akin to the flu shot, which is the best guess each year of the known flu strains. The COVID shot is based upon the alpha strain. We are now at the Rho strain.
Second, data clearly shows that people receiving the shot can and do contract, spread and die from the COVID virus. The death rates for those with and without the shot is nearly the same, 40 and 60 percent, respectively. From a statistical standpoint, there is no difference between either group. This is information from the US and England.
And third, Israel, which has the highest COVID first, second and booster shot rate in the world has concluded natural immunity is above and beyond the benefit of the COVID shots. This is because a COVID infection triggers a natural immune response to the virus itself that does not fade. (That is what true vaccines, such as polio or measles do in the immune system.) The COVID shot does not. This research and information was conducted and ascertained simultaneously at the Cleveland Clinic Medical Center.
So with that said, all the push for the COVID shot, in every one, is pure politics and has nothing to do with science.
For those of you who must know, yes, i am fully “vaccinated” and receive my yearly flu shot.
Chris, thank you for being the lone voice of reason and knowledge in a sea of extreme ignorance. I’m almost embarrassed to be a railfan after reading all of the other clueless commenters.
Also, after almost two months the “executive order” still has not progressed past the press release stage.
It’s regretful that it has come to this, e.g., lawsuits, government mandates, etc. Doesn’t an employer or business have an obligation to do what is within its power to provide a safe environment for employees and customers? Don’t we trust each other anymore?
Let the hardball games begin.
Kids need vaccinations to go to school and everybody wants their kids to NOT come down with Polio or Measles, but for some reason, many are now having hissy fits over a life saving vaccine.
Yeah!