600 Google Employees Sign Manifesto To Overturn the Company’s Vaxxine Mandate
By Daily Sceptic
Google, which employs approximately 150,000 people in the U.S., has mandated that all workers who interact with Government contractors be fully vaccinated, even if they work from home, with all other employees ordered to report their vaccination status. However, the new measure has encountered opposition within the company itself as roughly 600 members of staff have signed a manifesto demanding that Google “be inclusive to all Googlers” and overturn this policy, while calling on fellow employees to “oppose the mandate as a matter of principle”.
The tech giant is requiring its more than 150,000 U.S. employees to report their vaccination statuses and all employees who work directly or indirectly with Government contracts to be vaccinated, whether they plan to work in the office or not.
The manifesto, which has been signed by at least 600, or less than 0.5% of all Google employees, asks company executives to abandon the policy to create a mandate “inclusive of all Googlers”, CNBC first reported.
It urges workers to “oppose the mandate as a matter of principle” and encourages them not to allow the mandate to influence their decision to be inoculated.
Google had set a November 12th deadline for employees to request vaccine exemptions, and employees will be required to work in the office three days a week starting January 10th.
This comes after President Joe Biden announced that all U.S. companies with 100 or more employees must require their staff to be fully vaccinated or regularly tested for Covid by January 4th, 2022.
The authors sent the open letter, with the subhead “Respect the User”, to Google’s Chief Health Officer Karen DeSalvo, the document states.
“I believe that [CEO] Sundar’s Vaccine Mandate is deeply flawed,” the manifesto says, describing executives’ leadership as “coercive” and “the antithesis of inclusion”.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the company’s requirement for employees to be fully vaccinated to return in-person in a blog post in July. “Getting vaccinated is one of the most important ways to keep ourselves and our communities healthy in the months ahead,” Pichai wrote at the time.
The manifesto insists that the policy “publicly and possibly embarrassingly exposes” employees’ private choices.
At least 600 Google employees have signed a manifesto calling on the tech company to retract its COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The tech giant is requiring its more than 150,000 U.S. employees to report their vaccination statuses and all employees who work directly or indirectly with government contracts to be vaccinated, whether they plan to work in the office or not.
The manifesto, which has been signed by at least 600, or less than 0.5% of all Google employees, asks company executives to abandon the policy to create a mandate ‘inclusive of all Googlers,’ CNBC first reported.
It urges workers to ‘oppose the mandate as a matter of principle’ and encourages them not to allow the mandate to influence their decision to be inoculated.
Google had set a November 12 deadline for employees to request vaccine exemptions, and employees will be required to work in the office three days a week starting January 10.
This comes after President Joe Biden announced that all U.S. companies with 100 or more employees must require their staff to be fully vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19 by January 4, 2022.
The authors sent the open letter, with the subhead ‘Respect the User,’ to Google’s chief health officer Karen DeSalvo, the document states.
‘I believe that [CEO] Sundar’s Vaccine Mandate is deeply flawed,’ the manifesto says, describing executives’ leadership as ‘coercive’ and ‘the antithesis of inclusion.’
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the company’s requirement for employees to be fully vaccinated to return in-person in a blog post in July. ‘Getting vaccinated is one of the most important ways to keep ourselves and our communities healthy in the months ahead,’ Pichai wrote at the time.
The manifesto insists that the policy ‘publicly and possibly embarrassingly exposes’ employees’ private choices.
‘Such Googlers may never feel comfortable expressing their true sentiments about a company health policy and other, unrelated sensitive topics. This results in silenced perspective and exacerbates the internal ideological “echo chamber” which folks both inside and outside of Google have observed for years,’ the authors wrote.
They also do not believe the company has the right to demand to know the staff’s health and medical history claiming ‘the vaccination status is no exception.’
‘It normalizes medical intervention compulsion not only for Covid-19 vaccination but for future vaccines and possibly even non-vaccine interventions by extension. It justifies the principle of division and unequal treatment of Googlers based on their personal beliefs and decisions,’ the manifesto states.
‘The implications are chilling. Due to its presence as an industry leader, Google’s mandate will influence companies around the world to consider these as acceptable tradeoffs.’
Google VP of Security Chris Rackow sent an email last month, according to CNBC, touting the need for vaccinations: ‘Vaccines are key to our ability to enable a safe return to office for everyone and minimize the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.’
Google employees have continued to work to get executives to address their concerns. But Google isn’t the only workplace struggling to vaccinate their workers.
Disney World has put its COVID-19 vaccination mandate on hold for its Florida theme park employees after Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law making it illegal for companies to require staff get vaccinated.
DeSantis’ bill, which goes against President Biden’s federal vaccine mandate for private companies, would have made the tourism brand subject to fines.
A judge suspended a December 31 deadline for Chicago cops to get vaccinated against coronavirus after the police union challenged Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s mandate in court.
In New York City, thousands of unvaccinated firefighters opted to take sick leave to keep their paychecks before they were forced onto unpaid leave with police and EMTS forcing 26 fire stations to shut down- around 10% of the city’s total.
Los Angeles County Sherriff Alex Villaneuva claimed he would lose 30 per cent of his police force over the mandate.
But White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted President Bidens’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate would not lead to staffing shortages. The Labor Department announced November 12 that a record 4.4 million people quit their jobs in September, or about 3 per cent of the nation’s workforce.
Psaki downplayed a question from DailyMail.com as to whether that number might increase if workers quit rather than get vaccinated.
Several Republican-led states, employers, unions and other organizations filed lawsuits against the administration’s order.
Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans issued a preliminary pause on the order, which prevented the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from moving forward in implementing the employer rules.
In response, President Biden filed an emergency lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to immediately reinstate his vaccine mandate after the rule faced a series of legal challenges.
