Demonstrators at Charlotte-Douglas Airport Object to New Biden Policy

US Freedom Flyers, a group of discontented airline pilots, descended upon Charlotte-Douglas Airport, in North Carolina, in a protest against the Biden administration’s latest directive mandating administration of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In the newest missive, all private companies with 100 employees or more must enforce a vaccine requirement beginning January 4, 2021. Some mild relief may be seen in limited court interventions, as seen in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ emergency stay in Louisiana, but for many workers the judicial system will likely not be quick enough to act so that they retain their employment. 

Pilots have been one of the more visible groups fighting the mandate, taking issue with what some see as forced administration of a medication that infringes on supposedly sacrosanct bodily autonomy. With concerns ranging from religious reservations about the possible use of aborted fetal material to health issues that preclude vaccine administration, the number of pilots who have resisted the vaccine has been an uncommonly visible example of an industry in mild, muted revolt. 

"We’re out here today because we’re tired of the mandate. We’re tired of being told that our bodies are not ours," Artemis Coburn, a pilot for a major airline, told the station. "It just comes down to enough is enough, and we’re going to make a stand, and this is our stand."

If the mandate goes into effect on December 5 as planned, employees will be forced to submit to rules for mask use and invasive weekly testing, or accept the full vaccination regimen. Past executive action from the Biden administration had set the stage for all unvaccinated employees to be placed on forced, unpaid, unlimited leave this month, a policy that may have lead to a rash of cancellations and delays when rumors circulated that pilots, believing they would soon be out of work, began to cash in all their accrued paid time off in preparation for unemployment. Halloween weekend saw another rash of similar cancellations, attributed to staffing shortages and severe weather, when American Airlines cancelled 2,000 of its flights.

The forced leave portions of the policies have largely been rescinded, with the outcome not far removed from the newest government mandate: Mask use and weekly COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated employees. 

"If it actually comes down to that, it’s going to be catastrophic for the airline industry," Joshua Yoder, co-founder of US Freedom Flyers, said. "They can’t afford to lose 10% of their people, much less 20-30% across the various workgroups,” he said in reference to the composite group of religious, medical, or conscientious objectors. 

FMI: www.usfreedomflyers.org