On Chris Hayes’ show he discussed how the Republicans are fighting Biden’s vaccine requirements and why.
Incentives don’t work. Mandates work. …These people are behaving like irrational children and therefore what do you do with children? You have to do what’s best for children.
Mehdi Hasan, All In with Chris Hayes 9-20-2021
Now a right winger watching this will say, “Look at that paternalistic, tyrannical person on MSNBC!” But that is the reality in a public health crisis going all the way back to George Washington.
I’ve developed 6 steps people can take to help make the vaccine mandates happen using the power of social media, existing national corporate HR policies, Federal OSHA reporting methods and local news coverage of the conflict over mandates.
1) Find videos and social media stories of people publicly saying, “I won’t get vaccinated!”
Look for them at school board meetings, protests or of people in public places telling others about their intent.
2) Alert their employer via email, Facebook and Twitter.
Let the company know you will be filing a complaint with *OSHA
(I’ll do a piece on the process and issues of contacting OSHA later, but from OSHA.gov/workers. “anyone who knows about a workplace safety or health hazard may report unsafe conditions to OSHA, and OSHA will investigate the concerns reported.”)
3) After the mandate deadline is reached, resend the video or story to the company and ask for confirmation that the person(s) is vaccinated, is testing weekly, has quit, or was fired.
4) Share on social media what happened with that employee and employer
5) If the company doesn’t act, contact OSHA.
Fines are about $13,000 per violation, and go up to $139,000 to the companies that willfully don’t follow the safety regulations.
6) Share the stories of big fines on social media.
What are the reasons behind these steps?
1) It uses the anti-vaxxed own public statements against them.
2) It avoids retaliation for reporting against an individual they know who could attack them.
Corporate HR policies and OSHA procedures are designed to handle issues of confidentiality, retaliation and due process.
3) These stories are designed for cable TV news, so hosts can talk about enforcement issues.
4) It uses the power of the national corporate HR systems already in place for enforcement in states with bad governors.
5) It uses the power of the Federal government in states with Governors that don’t want to enforce the rule and financial consequences for companies that don’t want to enforces the rule.
The deadlines and the details of the vaccination mandate aren’t out yet, when they are there will be a flurry of new stories. When that happens it will be an opportunity to use existing stories and develop new ones to help enforce vaccination mandates.
Help Vaccine Mandates Happen
Below is an example of me using my 6 steps based on this tweet I saw last week. I contacted the author, discussed her concerns and then followed my 6 step plan. Here’s the letter I sent to Home Depot via email.
OSHA COVID-19 safety rule compliance complaint in Home Depot’s Marietta Georgia store
Craig Menear
Chairman, CEO and President
The Home Depot, Inc.
Dear Craig:
Thank you for signing the Business Roundtable letter supporting the vaccine mandate. Although it hasn’t been implemented yet, I’d like to alert you to a potential employee compliance problem in your Marietta Georgia store that I read on Twitter.
I contacted the author of the tweet who said the clerk got angry when discussing the vaccination mandate and dropped her mask to say, “I’m not letting them spear me with vaccine.”
The author was concerned that other employees might feel the same way and local store managers won’t enforce the vaccination mandate when it is implemented.
I hope they will, but I’ve taken the liberty of copying OSHA’s Region 4 Office on this letter so when the rule goes into effect, they can confirm that all employees have attested to being vaccinated or will test weekly to meet the requirements of the new rule.
Your customers know what can happen when you don’t follow safety rules on the jobsite. Injury and death. You and your shareholders should know the financial cost of willfully ignoring COVID-19 safety rules.
For example, earlier this year Marietta manufacturer FBS Manufacturing was cited for exposing workers willfully to preventable fall hazards that led to employee’s death.
“FBS Manufacturing Corp.’s failure to implement legally required safety procedures led to tragedy for a worker and his family,” said OSHA Area Office Director Jeffery Stawowy in Atlanta-West. “The fact that this incident was preventable only deepens their loss. This case should remind all employers that prioritizing production or profits over safety is never an acceptable choice.”
The author has built 3 homes in East Cobb County with Home Depot as her primary source of materials. She was very frightened after the incident and will not return until she reads about the 100% vaccination compliance at your Marietta Georgia store.
You have 90 stores in Georgia. An average of 118 Georgians are dying of COVID-19 everyday. The sooner you act, the more lives will be saved.
As you say in your values statement, do the right thing, take care of people and you’ll increase your shareholder value.
Keeping your employees alive is good for business.
LLAP,
Michal Spocko
P.S. The author sent me a copy of the receipt with the date and exact time of the interaction which I have linked to here.
cc: Eric R. Lucero, Public Affairs, Department of Labor, OSHA, Region 4, Atlanta-West
The Home Depot
Teresa Roseborough, EVP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Chair Compliance Council
Travis Lawrence, Vice President Human Resources
Kathleen Eaton, Vice President Safety
Chris Peters, Senior Manager Human Resources – COVID Strategic Response
Sue Dorsey, OSHA Regulatory Compliance Specialist
——————— # # # —————–
I hope others will try this. I want to learn from what works, adapt based on the reactions, and respond to issues that develop along the way. I expect that there will be a lot of, “But what about…” scenarios. I learned a lot about the HR process in big corps by talking to friends and family. The process for employees to report is another issue to address, they pointed out that most companies have an ethics hotline that can be used for reporting violations of health and safety rules. I’m very grateful for their expertise and time.
If you want to know more, I suggest you read some of the articles below. If you want to discuss this I’m at michalspocko @ protonmail com or you can DM me at @spockosbrain.
*OSHA.gov/workers
Can someone file a complaint for me?
“Yes, a compliant can be filed on your behalf by: an authorized representative of a labor organization or other employee bargaining unit; an attorney; any person acting as a bona fide representative, including members of the clergy, social workers, spouses and other family members; government officials or nonprofit groups; and organizations acting upon specific complaints and injuries from you or your coworkers. In addition, anyone who knows about a workplace safety or health hazard may report unsafe conditions to OSHA, and OSHA will investigate the concerns reported.”
Background on mandates, the law, OSHA rules, and corporate implementation of the rules.
I read dozens of stories about the issues and practicalities of the vaccination mandate, Here are 6 of the best.
OSHA’s Planned Covid Vaccine Rule Has Firms Asking, What’s Next? Bloomberg Law, September 10, 2021
Robert Iafolla, Fatima Hussein, Erin Mulvaney, Ben Penn
EXPLAINER: Employers have legal right to mandate COVID shots AP, July 27, 2021
by Mae Anderson And Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Federal Court: Anti-Vaxxers Do Not Have a Constitutional or Statutory Right to Endanger Everyone Else,
By Andrew Tauber on September 23, 2021
How OSHA Will Enforce Biden’s New Vaccine Mandate for Businesses, Healthline, September 16, 2021
by Brian Krans Fact checked by Dana K. Cassell
From McDonald’s to Goldman Sachs, here are the companies mandating vaccines for all or some employees,
NBC News, Aug. 3, 2021 By Haley Messenger
Is Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate a law? What happens to those who don’t get the shot?, USA Today,
by Scott Gleeson on September 10, 2021
“Abramson said OSHA will not specifically fine or focus on people who are unvaccinated but more so frame it on the company’s responsibility.“