Some unvaccinated Coast workers threaten to quit if Biden’s COVID mandate becomes reality
CORRECTION: On Friday, Huntington Ingalls Industries President and CEO Mike Petters released a policy requiring Ingalls employees be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8, 2021. The update follows President Biden’s Sept. 9 vaccine mandate announcement for federal employees and contractors, with the December deadline set on Friday. Reporting for the original story occurred before the deadline was pronounced and Ingalls was monitoring federal news before implementing a mandate.
If President Joe Biden’s vaccine or weekly testing mandate for businesses with over 100 employees is enacted across the Gulf Coast, some of the mostly unvaccinated workforce say they will quit their jobs.
“I’ve been getting my butt chewed up all day about it,” said Mickey Carr, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 2249, on Sept. 10, the morning after Biden announced the news. Carr oversees more than 500 machinists at John C. Stennis Space Center.
“Since 6:15 this morning, people have been calling about the news. My phone’s been burning up all day — they’re saying, ‘it’s our right whether we want to get it or not.’ I have a lot of people saying that if they have to get it, they’ll leave and find another job.”
Biden’s impending policy, set to push shots on 100 million Americans, would sharply impact workforce on the Coast, where vaccination rates lag behind state averages, which are already below national rates.
Stennis and the majority of the Coast’s large employers have said they’re waiting on more information from the White House about the federal mandate before enforcing anything at a time when many are struggling to vaccinate their employees or retain a workforce.
“I believe a mandate would disproportionately impact the state of Mississippi more negatively than other states,” said Singing River Health System CEO Lee Bond, noting that some nurses might quit at a time when health systems are already strained for help, exacerbated by COVID’s fourth wave.
“The composition of nurses in Mississippi is representative of the demographics of Mississippi... In the state of Mississippi there are many nurses that are not vaccinated,” he added. “And the fact that we already have a nursing shortage, a mandate could exacerbate the situation and the ability of state hospitals in Mississippi who are largely not-for-profit, to meet the highest calling of saving as many lives as possible.”
Singing River and Stennis join large Coast employers Ingalls Shipbuilding, Memorial Hospital, Mississippi Power and Hancock Whitney in holding off on vaccination requirement decisions while monitoring federal updates.
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino currently requires all salaried employees be fully vaccinated. Workers in certain jobs at Chevron are required to be vaccinated — including those who travel internationally and expatriates, seafarers on the U.S. fleet, as well as their Gulf of Mexico offshore workforce and some onshore support personnel.
Ochsner announced in late August a mandatory requirement that all its physicians, providers and employees be vaccinated by Oct. 29.
Panic among the workforce at Ingalls, the Coast’s largest employer
Mississippi’s largest manufacturing employer, Ingalls, touts 11,500 employees — some of which said they’d leave their jobs if a vaccine is required to work at the shipyard.
“I ask guys every day, because it looks like it’s going to be mandated soon, what they’ll do,” said Andrew Fliehman, a machinist at Ingalls.
“I know at least eight guys personally who said they’ll leave if they’re forced to get vaccinated, he said. “A lot of them are waiting for an ultimatum from Ingalls, and then they’ll leave. The older guys will just retire.”
Before his shift on Monday as a shipfitter at Ingalls, Gulfport resident Marcus Hopkins, 18, said he would quit if the company enforced a mandate.
“I didn’t get vaccinated,” Hopkins said. “I don’t feel comfortable getting the vaccine. If I’m not showing symptoms, I don’t feel like I need it. If they make me take it, I would just leave.”
Fliehman said that most around the shipyard are unvaccinated because of a general “bravado” attitude and misinformation.
“This is the biggest employer in this area. Not just this area, but also there’s a lot of employees that come from Mobile and New Orleans. — every day — and Hattiesburg. They, I mean, some people come from Pensacola,” Fliehman said.
“I think really the only issue at this point is people just are not properly informed about what the vaccine is and what it does, and they don’t feel — you know what I mean — they just don’t feel safe about — I don’t know what it is exactly. They don’t feel safe.”
Will Coast employees actually leave their jobs?
Lucedale resident Bradley Kinkle, 27, works at Ingalls and said he wishes he would have looked for a different job before a vaccination mandate was in question. He currently has one shot but doesn’t want to be told he has to take anything.
“[A mandate is] pretty stupid,” Kinkle said. “I should have gone ahead and quit and started working back in Lucedale. I’ve got a wife and I’ve got two kids. My thing is, this is the only place that’s paying as much as they’re paying, and you can’t really find a job somewhere else, as much as they want to.”
Kinkle makes $23.65 an hour as a chipper.
Machinist union president Carr said some of the workers threatening to quit might not actually leave because of the area’s job market.
“I think at the end of the day, they’ll probably get it,” said Carr. There are not that many good-paying jobs on the Coast.”
Hopkins also said that people might be hesitant to leave because of the need for their job.
“Some people might leave the job, but it’s not something they’re happy to do because they need the job,” he said.
But in the health care industry, where nurses are already in exceedingly high demand, there is real concern that the workforce would really take positions elsewhere if a federal mandate is set.
“I think that if there were a mandate, there is a certain percentage of nurses — even if it’s small — who could choose other professions. And any decrease in nurses in Mississippi is a bad thing for Mississippi because we already have an extreme deficit,” Bond said.
Incentives are helping some numbers increase
Ingalls said they have seen some of their workforce get vaccinated recently, as they’ve rolled out incentive programs for those who get both shots.
“We estimate that our vaccinated population rate is higher than state averages, but under the 50% mark. Recent trends have our vaccination rate steadily improving,” said spokesperson Teckie Hinkebein.
The company awards 8 hours of vacation or paid time off to employees who get fully vaccinated. Those who are vaccinated on-site at Ingalls won’t have to submit proof of their vaccination. Those who got their shots off-site need to submit their vaccination cards by text to 228-355-1472 or email at ingallsvaxcard@hii-Ingalls.com by sending a picture of the front and back of the card, along with the employee’s name and badge number.
On Sept. 1, Ingalls reported nearly 4,000 individual submissions, with about 400 shots given at their vaccination event at the end of August.
“The health of everyone in our shipyard community is vital to the critical role we play in defending freedom. Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect ourselves, our loved ones and every one of our team members,” Ingalls wrote in a press release. “If you are vaccinated, Ingalls will say “thank you” by awarding 8 hours of vacation/PTO.”
The shipbuilding company also holds raffles to encourage vaccination — they recently awarded two employees $2,500 for getting their shots.
Fliehman said he has noticed some of his coworkers getting vaccinated because of the incentives.
“I know numerous people like that I work with directly who have been pleased with the incentives,” he said. “They were kind of thinking about it, and they weren’t really sure. And then they were like, ‘Hey, you know, well, this little bit of incentive is the reassurance or the extra push that I needed for me to go ahead and get it.’”
At Chevron, which employs 1,400 in the area, the refinery provides time off for an employee to get vaccinated, “points” that can be used to lower health insurance premiums, and raffle prizes for those reporting their vaccination status.
A spokesperson at Chevron said they’re around the state average for vaccinations, which is currently about 42% — higher than Coastal averages which linger around 30%.
Hancock Whitney, while “closely monitoring developments with President Biden’s proposal regarding required vaccinations,” said they have offered on-site vaccination programs and internal incentives to encourage eligible associates to get vaccinated.
Lee Bond thinks that education, not incentives, has been raising his workforce’s vaccination rates.
“I think the biggest way to get more people vaccinated is not necessarily an incentive program, but rather an education program. I think there are a lot of people who still just do not understand the math of what a high probability it is if you are vaccinated, your mathematical odds of not having a bad outcome should you get COVID are tremendous,” he said.
This article and live event is supported by the Journalism and Public Information Fund, a fund of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 5:50 AM.
