Its racial breakdown roughly matches that of the U.S. United’s work force includes professionals with advanced degrees and workers who haven’t finished high school.

Some companies, like Disney and Walmart, had acted earlier but initially required only some employees to be vaccinated, primarily white-collar staff. When United announced its mandate in early August, it was part of a lonely group of large employers willing to broadly require vaccination. A few hundred more failed to comply with the mandate and could be fired in coming weeks. The key to United’s success, even in states where vaccination rates are at or below the national average, like Texas and Florida, was a gradual effort that started with providing incentives and getting buy-in from employee groups, especially unions, which represent a majority of its workers.Ībout 2,000 employees have applied for medical or religious exemptions, though their fate remains unclear as United fights a lawsuit over its plan to place them on temporary leave.

employees have been vaccinated, in one of the largest and most successful corporate efforts of the kind during the pandemic. Kirby’s team had guessed that no more than 70 percent of the airline’s workers were already vaccinated, and the requirement helped convince most of the rest: Nearly all of United’s 67,000 U.S. The company announced its vaccine mandate days later, kicking off a two-month process that ended last Monday. “People are dying, and we can do something to stop that with United Airlines.” He paced for about half an hour and then called two of his top executives.

Scott Kirby, the chief executive of United Airlines, reached a breaking point while vacationing in Croatia this summer: After receiving word that a 57-year-old United pilot had died after contracting the coronavirus, he felt it was time to require all employees to get vaccinated.

Airline transport pilot requirements