Breaking News: Southwest Airlines CEO caves into pressure

This is a beautiful thing!

Gary C. Kelly: Professional Liar, Professional Coward #GoWokeGoBroke

More here:

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly told CNBC on Tuesday he believes businesses should not impose Covid vaccine mandates on their employees, but he said his company is doing so to comply with federal rules put in place by the Biden administration.

“I’ve never been in favor of corporations imposing that kind of a mandate. I’m not in favor of that. Never have been,” Kelly said in an interview on “Squawk on the Street.” “But the executive order from President Biden mandates that all federal employees and then all federal contractors, which covers all the major airlines, have to have a [vaccine] mandate … in place by Dec. 8, so we’re working through that.”

25 Replies to “Breaking News: Southwest Airlines CEO caves into pressure”

  1. Funny how bad weather and technical issues forced this reversal. Ironic, but not funny at all. Reality tethered totalitarians. Good show

  2. Then STOP being a Federal Contractor !!! Your “personal belief” is of no importance to anyone. Instead … you have weaponized your entire corporation to comply with an Unconstitutional Biden edict. How DARE you!!??

    I will be looking for a different carrier until you take PROPER action!

    1. Yep…Bang on Kenji.

      Its unfortunate the Slack Jawed grinder Bent Wankers in Canada’s 2 Official Airlines have no BALLS. (figuratively and likely biologically as well).
      Trudeau having made the same declaration as “Brandon”.

      AirCanada (QUEBEC based)
      Westjet (Calgary Based)
      Fuck em. I drive where I want to go.

  3. You’ll forgive me if I don’t think that Kelly holds any opinion other than the one that appears when he sticks his finger up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. Case in point (July 2020 interview):

    “I just don’t think it should be only for air travel. Let’s mandate masks. You have to wear pants,” Kelly said in a July interview with CNBC. “Why can’t we mandate that you have to wear a mask in a pandemic?”

    He added on Wednesday that until people do everything they can to “crush the pandemic … we’re all going to suffer.”

  4. My understanding is that there still isn’t an official mandate – just a press announcement that Puddin’ for Brains was going to mandate it.

  5. He didn’t cave. He served word salad to buy time. He basically said SouthWest will fire employees at the discretion of the Federal Government. German bureaucrats played this game throughout the ’30s.

  6. In my best Kathy Newman impression: “So you are saying Let’s Go Brandon”?

    But…how did Joe Biden cause the flights to be cancelled because of weather?

  7. So staff your government flights with your vaxxed people, and STFU about the rest of it. If any gov people get on your regular flights, it’s at their own risk.

    Southwest Air is putting itself out of business. They may be first big domino to fall, but they won’t be the last.

    We are living in Peak Crazy.

  8. Southwest has been flying the illegals around for china joe , that probably makes them a government contractor. Joey thinks he has them by the huevos

  9. Off topic but still somewhat related here, Lady Kate, there’s a former Virgin exec setting up a new regional airline in Australia next year. I can’t think of a worse time for this, but I wish him luck… He’s named it “Bonza”, Aussie slang for ‘great’ or ‘cool’, with the logo of a purple ‘thumb up’.

    I guess it’s still better than my own long-running gag with friends of ‘Plummet Aerospace – we really make an impact…!’ using ransom demand font and featuring a plane on fire and auguring in during a massive thunderstorm, complete with lightning…!

    There was an old Fast Forward comedy skit of an elderly couple in financial difficulties because their corrupt Eastpac (itself a play on Westpac bank here) manager had gotten them to buy an airline…!

  10. Somewhat O/T but “Next Round?”

    “Maine Hospital Gives Dire Warning About Healthcare Services if Forced to Fire Unvaccinated Workers – Democrat Governor Says Let Your Hospital Patients Die We Ain’t Changing
    October 12, 2021 | Sundance | 265 Comments”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/10/12/maine-hospital-gives-dire-warning-about-healthcare-services-if-forced-to-fire-unvaccinated-workers-democrat-governor-says-let-your-hospital-patients-die-we-aint-changing/

  11. I see no cave. What I see is him spinning, spinning. Caving to pressure would be revoking his order and making the government come after him.

  12. I watched the video, know what I heard?: “Apply for any medical or religious exemption and we’ll approve it”
    – Did anybody else get this message? Or am I just weird? (re: SouthWest Air)

    1. I think you are hearing correctly. You shall be blessed by Saint Brandon.

      Let’s go Brandon.

      1. LOL’ touché. But seriously, he shows everybody how to work around the diktat, just have your HR folks allow every single exception, however outrageous. That’s the only way to follow FJB’s announcement without losing any employees. N’est-ce pas? Parse this:
        “Talking about the vaccine mandate, oh yeah, I mean there are some that have very strong views on both sides of that issue and, you know, it’s not as I think you probably know, I’ve never been in favor of corporations imposing that kind of a mandate. I’m not in favor of that, never have been. But the executive order from President Biden mandates that all federal employees and then all federal contractors which covers all the major airlines have to have a mandate vaccine in place by December the eighth so we’re working through that. We’re urging all of our employees to get vaccinated. If they can’t, we’re urging them to seek an accommodation either for medical or religious reasons and my goal obviously is that no one loses their job. “

  13. Read the Biden Executive Order #14043:

    https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/09/14/2021-19927/requiring-coronavirus-disease-2019-vaccination-for-federal-employees

    “I have determined that ensuring the health and safety of the Federal workforce and the efficiency of the civil service requires immediate action to protect the Federal workforce and individuals interacting with the Federal workforce.”

    “Accordingly, building on these actions, and in light of the public health guidance regarding the most effective and necessary defenses against COVID-19, I have determined that to promote the health and safety of the Federal workforce and the efficiency of the civil service, it is necessary to require COVID-19 vaccination for all Federal employees, subject to such exceptions as required by law.”

    “(b) The term “employee” means an employee as defined in 5 U.S.C. 2105 (including an employee paid from nonappropriated funds as referenced in 5 U.S.C. 2105(c)).”

    Nowhere does it say that Federal Contractors are covered by this order. It only says Federal Employees are covered, and then goes on to define what that is. It isn’t Postal Workers though, apparently (miraculously). They are trying to finesse this through on pure bullshit, hoping that executives with interpret the quite loosely-worded “individuals interacting with the Federal Workforce” in their favor, and they are getting a lot of help from the media to get it done.

  14. The federal rules do not even yet exist. He’s alienating the entire workforce on the basis of a press release; and apparently too compliant to even consult a lawyer.

    Go Brandon, go. You’ve got ’em on the run now.

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