Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian this week announced the Atlanta-based company will force employees who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 to wear masks, to test for the virus, and to possibly sacrifice part of their compensation packages.
But how will Delta officials distinguish between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated?
Will Delta officials, for instance, ask employees to produce a COVID-19 vaccine card? And, if that is the case, are Delta officials guilty of hypocrisy?
Bastian earlier this year said he opposed Georgia’s new voter integrity law, Senate Bill 202, which requires voter ID on all absentee ballots and secured drop boxes around the clock. This, to make certain that voters are who they say they are.
The Georgia Star News posed those questions to Delta’s communications’ team Friday. An unidentified company spokesman promised to answer our questions before Friday’s stated deadline. But, ultimately, no one from the company answered our questions.
Bastian in a memo this week mandated the following requirements:
• Unvaccinated employees must wear masks in all indoor Delta settings.
• Starting next month, any U.S. Delta employee who is not fully vaccinated must take a COVID test each week. Those with a positive result must isolate and remain out of the workplace.
• Starting in November, unvaccinated employees who have enrolled in Delta’s account-based healthcare plan are subject to a $200 monthly surcharge. Company officials said the average hospital stay for COVID-19 has cost Delta $50,000 per person.
• Starting late September, company officials will provide COVID pay protection only to fully vaccinated individuals who experience a breakthrough infection.
In June an anonymous Delta Airlines employee who said he or she had more than two decades of experience complained about Bastian and the company’s Woke culture.
The anonymous author sent the letter to political commentator Karlyn Borysenko, who posted about it on her YouTube channel. Journalist Kyle Becker also published the letter on his website. They reported the letter is now in wide circulation. The author said he or she was writing anonymously for fear of retaliation.
A rabbi this month accused Delta Airlines of anti-Semitism. This, after airline officials barred a group of Orthodox Jewish girls from boarding a flight from Amsterdam to New York – and then removed them from another flight the next day.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Delta Flight” by blackqualis. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Boycot Delta.