An interesting interview with Chris Spear, president of the American Trucking Association.
During a House Transportation Committee hearing on supply chain issues, CEO Chris Spear shares an internal survey showing that 37% of truck drivers “not only said no, but said hell no” to the Biden vaccine mandates.
To give some perspective of the downstream consequence, the ATA President noted that “if just 3.7 percent, not 37 percent, just 3.7 percent” of the drivers left the industry, there would be over a quarter million vacancies resulting in a “catastrophic” collapse of the U.S. supply chain. Mr. Spear also shared his opinion the OSHA rule is completely unworkable and unlawful.
The consequences are grave if just 3.7% did not work. However, if ten times that many, 37 percent of truck drivers, stopped hauling products because of the Biden vaccine requirement, American civic society would collapse within days as panicked citizens took to the streets. Desperate Americans would be clamoring for scarce products, and the impact on society could not be measured. WATCH:
As we have continued to point out, a federal vaccine mandate might sound like a good idea on a think tank, academic or white paper policy level of consideration; but on a practical level, wiping out a large percentage of your most productive workforce over a vaccine mandate is unworkable, and might even end the operation of the entire business.
It is important to note the recent NBC poll on this issue amid the outlook of the vaccine mandates. A majority of the country do not support the vaccine mandates, and worse still, the number of unvaccinated workers is essentially unwavering in the past six weeks {poll data}. Remember, the number of Americans who willingly quit their jobs increased to 4.3 million in August {link}, and then increased again to 4.4 million in September {link}. People are not f**king around now.
The number of cumulative hard “NO’s” has gone from 26 percent of the workforce in August, to 27 percent in October.
We are down to the hardened group, an educated and solid bunch of people who use common sense, and they are not going to take the forced vaccination. In quantifiable terms, the increased pressure to force the jab into the arms of the American workforce has now crossed into “the law of diminishing returns.” More government pressure ain’t going to yield the previous level of compliance. This threshold crossed is also quantifiable in the Americans who quit working: “A record-high 4.4 million people, or 3% of workers, quit their job in September according to the Labor Department’s latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released Friday.”
There are 205 million legally eligible U.S. workers, between 15 and 74-years-old (census figures), with a workforce participation rate of 61% (BLS figures) which would equal 125 million legally eligible workers. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the number of working Americans at 161 million workers (BLS figures). The majority of the difference between the two figures are most likely illegal alien workers (yeah, lots of them).
Approximately 40 percent of the eligible population are not working. Some people are single family income (wives or husbands who don’t work), and some are just people who choose not to work, cannot work or have not yet started to work (college etc). With somewhere between 125 million and 161 million workers doing the jobs that keep the country functioning, there are also approximately 10 million unfilled job openings.
According to the most recent statement from Joe Biden on October 14th: “We’re down to 66 million — it’s still an unacceptably high number — of unvaccinated people from almost 100 million in July.” Approximately 60 million of those are within the current U.S. workforce.
If we split the difference (census -vs- BLS) and take the mid-point at 140 million workers, then 60 million workers refusing the vaccine mandate represents about 40 percent of the entire population of eligible workers. Put another way, in the best case scenario, if 60 million people quit working or were fired, the national unemployment rate would be at least 35% !
What we call the United States doesn’t function with 35% unemployment; systems of commerce start to collapse, then government, then civil society.
The U.S. economy is currently functioning with 5% unemployment and 10 million unfilled jobs.
Just imagine the economic impact of 35% unemployment and 70 million unfilled jobs.
Keep in mind, the vast majority of those 60 million jobs are the productive workforce that keep the entire machine of the U.S. functioning.
This is the workforce that keeps the goods moving, the lights on, garbage picked up, streets safe, shelves stocked, stuff fixed and facilitates everything that makes the entire system of society function.
It is the force of this crew or hard core, dirty fingernail, no-nonsense workers that is pushing those federal contractor companies to contact the administration and tell them this mandate is not going to work for them. If the companies have to choose between losing their ability to contract with the federal government, or losing the most critical part of their workforce, well, they ain’t going to stick with Biden’s mandate.
There ain’t no way in heck that government or private industry can function with tens of millions of Americans in the workforce getting forcibly removed for refusing the vaccine. I believe that is why you are now hearing from companies saying they will not fire the unvaccinated workers (ex Delta Airlines).
Pontificating leftists and academics, without a bit of sense for what actually happens in the Main Street economy, have no concept of what it looks like if ten million people quit or are fired from working next month…. let alone five times that many. Bottom line: THIS IS A NON-ENFORCEABLE MANDATE, even if they wanted to do it.
The power of the American workforce is in the scale of dependency each person brings to the system when they are united. It might seem like a few thousand here/there, because that’s the way the media are framing it. However, if you add up all those few thousands together, you end up with millions.
As we previously outlined, this is not about vaccines per se’, this is more about a slippery slope of having the government dictate how you can live your life and earn a living.
If they can force us to have a medical procedure, and then carry documentation of that procedure in order to work… why can’t they force us to get a small electronic implant of our identification, which would coincidentally include your medical authorizations for work?
It’s just a metal detector…. it’s just taking off your shoes… it’s just wearing a mask…. it’s just a vaccination….. it’s just a COVID passport… it’s always, “just”.
Factually, at the end of all this, I still do not believe a federal mandate for a vaccine is even possible or legal. It appears to me that all of Biden’s threats in this regard are simply that, threats.
The purpose of the threat is to push people to take the vaccine without actually attempting a legal federal mandate; and that approach so far has been successful. However, now they are going to encounter the more hard-core groups who will not concede liberty or freedom to a federal mandate.
It is obvious Anthony Fauci also knows a federal vaccine mandate on the private sector will lose in court when challenged. The fact that Fauci brings up state vaccination requirements for education as examples of historically forced vaccinations is both a strawman argument and structurally false. There has never been a FEDERAL mandate for any vaccination. All the vaccinations Fauci discusses (ex. his kids) were state mandates. Each state also has a different set of standards and laws for children and vaccines. There is nothing federal.
The federal government is attempting to set up a federal work authorization standard for private businesses. Non-compliance means you cannot work, or you lose your existing job if your employer goes along with the government demand. THAT alone should alarm everyone.
There is a particularly enraging irony in that Joe Biden’s federal DOJ and Dept of Labor do not enforce employment eligibility authorization for illegal aliens based on legal status, while at the same time the Biden Dept. of Labor is putting OSHA in charge of a federal policy that will enforce vaccination requirements. Go figure.
All of the federal exemptions essentially undermine the “national health emergency” argument, because if there really was such a public health emergency, there would be no exemptions at all. The application of the executive order undermines the actual cornerstone of the executive order itself. It cannot withstand scrutiny…. hence, Biden doesn’t actually put any rules or regulations into writing because that gives lawsuits something specific to file injunctions against.
In the interim, as the freedom coalition digs in to mount a patriotic challenge, the authoritarian attempt of the federal government, the rebellious alliance is hitting back in unique ways as noted by the Southwest Airline pilots and Air Traffic Controllers, both groups hold a significant military service record. As noted, recently American Airlines was forced to cancel 1,700 flights due to staffing issues:
NPR […] American Airlines cancelled more than 1,700 flights over Halloween weekend, including more than 800 on Sunday alone, due to weather and staff shortages, the company said. […] American Airlines says that 343 were cancelled on Friday, followed by another 548 cancellations on Saturday. Most of the cancelled flights were coming to and from the airline’s main hub in Dallas/Fort Worth, as well as in Charlotte, N.C.
[…] In a letter to staff sent out Saturday, the company’s chief operating officer, David Seymour, said the company “proactively” cancelled flights on Sunday because of severe winds in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and a shortage of crews. (read more)
Another group who are pushing back against the federal effort are local law enforcement and firefighters. Again, another private sector group that has a heavy percentage of former military service members amid the ranks.
The blue-collar effort to bolster the resistance by these groups does not have to be too massive to have an impact. Remember, almost all of these leftists and elite minded communists who now operate as Democrats have no capacity for self-sufficiency. If the working class stops picking up their trash; stops mowing their lawns, shopping for them, doing their cleaning and essentially facilitating their lives, this entire group of scholastic-minded knuckleheads cannot function.
From a commonsense and logistical perspective, regardless of the federal outlook, there’s no way they can pull it off. We are the quiet, and according to those who look down their noses – the “invisible” unwashed masses. However, when it comes to keeping the gears turning, we are the majority.
WASHINGTON DC – Objections among certain vendors over President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors are reaching an inflection point. As the deadline for workforce vaccination approaches, some trucking companies are mulling whether to end their work with the federal government altogether, according to two industry insiders.
In an interview, the American Trucking Associations’ executive vice president for advocacy Bill Sullivan told POLITICO that some companies may simply decide that the cost of the mandate is not worth the government’s checks. Sullivan said he has raised concerns to the White House, Office of Management and Budget and other executive branch officials. He noted that if companies drop their contracts, it may be harder to get certain foods to troops, transport fuel for military vehicles, or even deploy the National Guard.
[…] interviews with more than a dozen industry advocates across the aerospace, distribution, defense and trucking sectors — some of whom have also been in discussions with administration officials — reveal they either have little confidence they will be able to meet the Dec. 8 deadline for their workers to receive their first vaccine shot or expressed concerns about difficulties the mandate would pose on their labor force.
The White House has repeatedly insisted — both in private meetings and publicly — that the federal contractors can avoid potential service disruptions during the holiday season. (read more)
We keep their shit working and just want to be left alone. The system will not function if tens-of-millions of American workers stand united against the vaccine mandate. It really is that simple.
