[ad_1]
AUSTIN, Texas – After more than a year and a half struggling to survive amid the economic toll of the pandemic, some Texan companies are now trying to tackle the Biden government’s vaccine mandate, fearing that it could be the search for labor amid an ongoing labor shortage.
What you need to know
- Texas business owners are in a back and forth over vaccine mandates
- Governor Greg Abbott has banned vaccine mandates for private companies, while the White House has ordered all private companies with 100 or more employees to require COVID-19 vaccines or have bi-weekly testing
- A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the White House order, but the case is expected to face further legal hurdles
“It was really tough,” said Skeeter Miller, who owns the County Line, a popular grill chain with six restaurants and about 500 employees.
Miller has been running his restaurants for 46 years. But the last year and a half of the pandemic had been one of the hardest times in his memory, he said.
Miller is grateful that he managed to keep the County Line restaurants afloat despite the mandatory closings last year. Then came the surge in the Delta variant and a surge in COVID-19 infections across the country, including Texas. And today, as he and other Texan companies have barely escaped the economic burden of the pandemic, Miller is grappling with national supply chain problems and labor shortages.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden then announced a new ordinance requiring companies with more than 100 employees to either require COVID-19 vaccinations or periodic testing by January 4th and contractors.
The White House said the announcement was made to boost the country’s delayed vaccination campaign and contain the spread of the disease.
Within days of Biden’s announcement of a private company’s vaccine mandates that would directly impact Miller’s business, Texas joined several other states, corporations, and stakeholders in a lawsuit against the president’s order, arguing that this was an excess equaled the government.
Add this to the fact that Governor Greg Abbott had already enacted an executive order banning vaccine mandates for private Texas companies. Failure to comply with the governor’s prohibition could result in a $ 1,000 fine.
Private business owners were stuck between violating federal mandates or receiving a fine under the governor’s order.
At the weekend, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the Biden government’s vaccine mandate for private companies.
The back and forth has made Miller and other Texas business owners nervous as they fear it is only a matter of time before the problem takes another turn in an already extremely volatile time.
According to Miller, 250,000 jobs have already been lost and 7,000 restaurants have had to close.
Companies like the County Line are trying to rebuild, he said.
“I think the hardest thing for us is when you have to close your business,” he said. But at the same time “you want to make sure that you take care of your employees.”
But it’s not just the back and forth on vaccine mandates that worries entrepreneurs like Miller.
A pandemic of the unvaccinated
New data released this week by state health officials showed that unvaccinated Texans made up the vast majority of COVID-19 cases and deaths this year. Between mid-January and October, 85% of those who died from the virus in the state were unvaccinated. Likewise, 85% of the people who tested positive had not received the vaccination.
The data showed that unvaccinated Texans were about 20 times more likely to experience COVID-19-associated death and 13 times more likely to test positive than those who were fully vaccinated. While 70% of the country is fully vaccinated, only about 53% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated in Texas.
“The measures announced by the president are designed to save lives and stop the spread of COVID-19,” White House deputy spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press conference when asked about Biden’s latest mandate order. “Congress strengthened OSHA with a bill that has been on the books for more than 50 years. So this is an authority that we believe has the Department of Labor, we are very confident, and just to keep people safe in the workplace. “
Nevertheless, entrepreneurs and interest groups do not agree.
“This federal government’s claim to power to force Americans into medical treatment they would not choose voluntarily is appalling. It’s tyrannical, ”said Robert Henneke, general counsel of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “It’s overwhelming and it’s unprecedented.”
The court’s decision this week to halt the move is temporary and likely to be implicated in court as the matter is fully litigated and may reach the US Supreme Court.
“Since 1905, the US Supreme Court has ruled that vaccine requirements are legal and has since affirmed this in numerous lawsuits related to polio and smallpox and others,” said Randy Erben, associate professor at the University of Texas School of Law. “This is not a new controversy. It’s just in a different context due to COVID and the controversy that has been going on over the past few years regarding the virus. “
For Miller, the concern is that even if he offered testing to his employees, the requirement could worsen the pre-existing labor shortage, he said.
“It’s people’s choice of what to do, and I can’t dictate that,” he said. “For me, it’s about business. I cannot open my doors without employees. And that’s what’s scary about it. It’s out of my control, ”said Miller.
[ad_2]
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2021/11/09/texas-businesses-caught-in-conundrum-as-vaccine-mandates-challenged
