General Motors is requiring all of its U.S. white-collar employees to reveal their COVID-19 vaccination status as the automaker evaluates whether or not to mandate vaccination across its salaried workforce.
Upon learning the news, UAW President Ray Curry said Thursday afternoon that the union has not asked its hourly workforce members to disclose their vaccination status and will not do so. The union encourages its members to get vaccinated, but leaves it a voluntary decision.
If GM or another automaker wanted to mandate vaccination for the hourly workforce, it would be subject to negotiation with the union, Curry said.
“We’ve not had an employer reach out to us to have a mandated vaccine process,” Curry said. “We would be willing to sit down with the respective bargainers and employers at each location to have that discussion — but we have not engaged in any mandate … all our discussions have been around voluntary vaccinations.”
On Thursday, GM confirmed it had confidentiality asked its roughly 48,000 U.S. salaried workers to share their vaccine information so it can assess overall immunity levels and guide its safety protocols.
“The reporting of our employees’ vaccination status is helping GM Medical assess the overall immunity of our employee population and determine when GM should relax or strengthen certain COVID-19 safety protocols … such as mask wearing, physical distancing and facility occupancy rates,” said Maria Raynal, GM spokeswoman.
GM had been collecting vaccine information on a voluntary basis to protect the interest of employees’ health and safety, Raynal said. The data helps GM determine its future safety protocols.
“In an effort to improve our data collection, we took the first step with our U.S. salaried employees to put a process in place for mandatory reporting,” Raynal said. “We will maintain the voluntary reporting of vaccine status and encourage our hourly employees to continue to report in the voluntary system.”
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GM sent the “confidential online reporting tool” to employees earlier this month and required them to respond by Monday. GM required those employees who said they were fully vaccinated to submit proof of their status. The story was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The Detroit Three have not required workers to get vaccinated to date. But earlier this month, GM CEO Mary Barra said GM was considering whether to mandate employees to be fully vaccinated.
“We’re evaluating what’s appropriate and talking to our specific stakeholders,” Barra told reporters during GM’s second-quarter earnings call on Aug. 4. “There’s nothing to announce today. We are evaluating multiple choices we can make.”
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration granted final approval to the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19. At that time, Raynal told the Free Press, “As we have throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, GM encourages its employees to get vaccinated and we hope today’s announcement may help alleviate concerns among any who have waited to get their shots.”
President Joe Biden on Monday urged U.S. businesses to mandate employees get vaccinated or face consequences. On Wednesday, Delta Air Lines said it plans to charge workers who refuse to get a vaccination an extra $200 per month for their health care insurance.
In April, GM introduced its Work Appropriately plan to its global workforce of 155,000 employees. Work Appropriately gives many salaried workers more flexibility to work remotely or come into the office if necessary to best perform their jobs. GM’s salaried workers in southeast Michigan started to return to the office this summer, but Work Appropriately has factored into how that happens for each of them.
Ford Motor Co. said it does not mandate that employees disclose their vaccination status, though earlier this summer it added a voluntary question to its daily health assessment survey asking employees whether they had been fully vaccinated with options to answer “yes,” “no” or “prefer not to answer,” said Marisa Bradley, Ford spokeswoman. Only those coming to a Ford facility complete this daily survey and it is used to guide Ford’s safety protocols, she said.
But Ford, like GM, is evaluating a mandated vaccination option.
“Ford strongly encourages all employees who are eligible to get vaccinated,” Bradley said. “We believe the vaccine plays a critical role in combating the virus and have designated some roles where we require the vaccine. We are currently assessing whether we need to expand the requirement.”
On Wednesday, Ford said it would push back its return-to-work program to January because of an increase in COVID-19 cases. It also said it will allow many salaried workers the opportunity to work remotely for up to 30 days each year going forward.
A spokeswoman for Stellantis, which used to be called Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, declined to comment on the company’s reporting protocol.
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.