ABC‘s Alex Stone - September 29, 2021 - KRDO‘s Afternoon News

Vaccine mandates are now playing out at the nation’s biggest airlines.  United Airlines is firing 593 employees who the airline says refused to get vaccinated and did not have exemptions. The airline is also being sued by at least 7 employees for planning to put workers with religious exemptions on unpaid leave indefinitely saying they are being discriminated against.  United made the rule to essentially weed out those using religious exemptions as an excuse to see who is willing to go on unpaid leave for, maybe, months because of their unwillingness to the vaccine.  Southwest and American pilots are asking the White House to exempt them from vaccine mandates claiming, without evidence, that the vaccine could have career ending side effects for them.  They also say they are held to such a high physical standard that the vaccine should not be mandated for them.  4200 American Airlines pilots are still unvaccinated.  They threaten that holiday travel could be disrupted if they are forced to get vaccinated.