Press Statement: IFPTE President Shearon on President Biden’s Decision to Mandate Covid-19 Vaccinations for Workers Employed in the Federal Government

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Our union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, fully supports a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for workers in the federal sector. This country is in the middle of a terrible pandemic, more than 627,000 Americans are dead, and we don’t want any more of our members dying.

IFPTE represents thousands of highly-skilled professionals employed by the federal government who work in a wide range of occupations including immigration judges at the Department of Justice, rocket scientists at NASA, Congressional watchdogs at GAO, engineers and technical workers at naval shipyards, to name only a few examples.

As a union representing federal workers it is incumbent upon us to make sure that our members’ workplaces are safe and healthy. We don’t think either our members or their mission should be placed at risk by those who have been hesitant to take a shot.

We do believe legitimate health and religious reasons exist for not getting vaccinated, but those individuals who fall into those categories should be regularly tested and must remain masked and practice social distancing while on the job. We believe that the president’s executive order will allow for those exceptions.

This is not an easy decision President Biden made, but it’s the right one for our members and for the nation.

Paul Shearon is the President of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. Across the nation, IFPTE represents 90,000 highly-skilled workers in the federal, public, and private sectors. Approximately one third of IFPTE’s members are employed in the federal sector. The union is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO. More information can be found at www.IFPTE.org.

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Download a PDF of this press statement here.

For more information, visit the Safer Federal Workforce website.