At least two dozen unvaccinated employees at the Lansing offices of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Accident Fund were put on unpaid leave this week for failing to follow through with a company mandate to get their COVID-19 shots by Wednesday.
“We’ve had conversations about the policies and we’ve been meeting with the administration, but they won’t engage in bargaining, so to speak,” said Tammy Thompson, an officer at UAW Amalgamated Local 2256, which represents more than 300 staffers at the Accident Fund. “Usually, we’ll always negotiate terms and conditions of employment. That’s not happening. And now we have employees who are just out of a paycheck — and right before the holiday season.”
On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the Biden’s administration’s ability to enforce the vaccine requirement for certain federal contractors, leaving all three mandates in legal limbo.
Despite the judicial pause , the Accident Fund (and its parent company, Blue Cross Blue Shield) is still requiring its staff to be vaccinated as if the ruling never happened — requiring all employees to have started their vaccine series on Wednesday or have received company approval for a medical or religious exemption to excuse them from the mandate.
Blue Cross Blue Shield boots unvaccinated staffers in Lansing
