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TALKING TCA
Vaccine
mandate
spurs legal
challenges
By John Worthen
Mentioning COVID-19 vaccine mandates in trucking
industry circles may cause some wincing.
Not because of the needle, either.
It’s taking away personal rights, many contend.
For now, President Joe Biden’s nationwide vaccine mandate
is mired down in the courts. A federal judge on December
8 blocked it from being enforced for employees
of federal contractors, the latest in a string of victories for
Republican-led states pushing back against Biden’s pandemic
policies.
Millions of health care workers across the U.S. were supposed
to have their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by
Dec. 6 under a mandate issued by the Biden administration.
Thanks to legal challenges, they won’t have to worry
about it, at least for now.
Same goes for a January 4 deadline set by the administration
for businesses with at least 100 employees to ensure
their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly for the virus.
In early November, the American Trucking Associations
(ATA), along with the Louisiana Motor Truck Association,
the Mississippi Trucking Association and the Texas Trucking
Association, sued the Biden administration over the
mandate.
“We told the administration that this mandate, given
the nature of our industry and makeup of our workforce,
could have devastating impacts on the supply chain and
the economy and they have, unfortunately, chosen to move
forward despite those warnings,” said ATA President Chris
Spear.
“So we are now, regrettably, forced to seek to have this
mandate overturned in court.”
In a November, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said
that truckers should be exempt from the mandate.
“If you’re a truck driver and you’re outside, you’re in a
cab driving by yourself, this doesn’t impact you. If you’re
a worker outside working in the area, this doesn’t impact
you,” Walsh told Philadelphia television station WPVI.
Whether Walsh’s statement means that truckers are exempt
remains unclear. He hasn’t addressed the issue since.
More than four-fifths of adults nationwide already have
received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But Biden
contends his various workforce vaccine mandates are an
important step in curtailing the virus, which has killed more
than 780,000 people in the U.S.
Opponents have taken a three-tiered approach to challenging
Biden’s requirements. In lawsuits, they contend
the vaccine mandates were imposed without proper public
comment, were not authorized by Congress and infringe on
states’ rights to regulate public health matters.
“The reasoning across the cases is basically the same,
which is that these statutes don’t give the president or the
agency in question the authority to issue the mandates,”
said Gregory Magarian, a constitutional law professor at
Washington University in St. Louis.
As for truckers, many are outspoken on the issue.
A long-haul trucker who asked only to be identified as
Steve out of fear his company would retaliate against him
said the mandates amount to ending freedom in America.
“It’s my body, it should be my choice,” Steve said. “I don’t
know why the government thinks they can tell me what I
can and cannot put into my own body. It’s just not right.”
Some other truckers have more moderate views.
Sandra Jenkins, who works for a small Arkansas trucking
company, said she has no problem getting the vaccine.
“I am all for vaccinations, but I do think the mandate may
be going a little too far,” she said. “I mean, I get it. We need
to stop this virus, but I can see why the mandates upset so
many people.”
40 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | WWW.TRUCKLOAD.ORG TCA JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022