The CEO of United Airlines on Wednesday said that their company will fire the remaining employees who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine despite the vaccine mandate imposed by the airline company.

CEO Scott Kirby voiced out the airline's decision during an interview with CBS News, saying that employees who did not meet the company's September deadline on the COVID vaccine will be affected by the company's move.

"I respect that you have a different opinion. But you now have a decision to make about whether you want to get vaccinated and stay at United or not," Kirby said in the interview.

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232 United Airlines Employees to be Fired Over Vaccine Status

According to Kirby, at least 232 employees from United Airlines are going through a "termination process," a number that downgraded from the original 600 employees who did not comply with the company's policy, Fox Business reported.

"I wish we have gotten to 100 percent but out of 67,000 U.S. employees, there are 232 who haven't been vaccinated," Kirby underscored.

Kirby also mentioned that he "tried to be empathetic," and he acknowledged that a lot of people have a different stand when it comes to the COVID vaccine. However, the United Airlines CEO explained that he believes in safety and mandating the vaccine with their employees is "the right thing to do" for the safety of their workers.

United Airlines announced the vaccine mandate for their employees in August. The CEO shared that his decision to require his employees to get the vaccine arose when a 57-year-old pilot died due to coronavirus.

"Over the last 16 months, Scott has sent dozens of condolences letters to the family members of Unites employees who have died from COVID-19," reads the letter that announced the vaccine mandate on United Airlines in August.

Under the vaccine mandate imposed by the airline, employees were required to send proof that they received whether two doses of Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccine or a dose of the jab from Johnson and Johnson.

United Airlines CEO Says Their Vaccine Mandate Won't Be Affected by the Texas EO

The United Airlines employees who will be terminated came days after Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order that prohibits any entity in the lone star state from showing proof of vaccination. It can be recalled that United Airlines has one of its largest hubs in Houston, Texas.

CEO Kirby said that the executive order issued by Abbott will not affect their vaccine mandate, arguing that 99.7% of their employees were already vaccinated against the disease.

"Because this is in the rearview mirror for us [Texas EO], we don't have to be as focused on 'What does this really mean in the short term,'" Kirby pointed out. The CEO then reiterated that his responsibility is to do the right thing for his company.

Kirby also ripped the executive order issued by the Texas governor, saying that there will be a lot of companies that will have to find out the difference between the executive order from the governor and the one from the president.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

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