General Electric Announces an End to COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement After Supreme Court Blocks Biden’s Mandate

General Electric announced today that it will put an end to its COVID-19 vaccine or test requirement after the Supreme Court Blocked Biden’s mandate yesterday.

According to a company spokesperson, GE, which had 174,000 employees at the end of 2020, still encourages its employees to get vaccinated.

TPUSA’s Benny Johnson celebrated the decision in a tweet where he declared, “The first domino has fallen.”

BREAKING: GE suspends COVID-19 vaccine or test requirement after U.S. Supreme Court's ruling

The first domino has fallen.https://t.co/ns2GRDHln4

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 14, 2022

According to a previous report, GE spokesperson Mary Kate Mullaney confirmed on Oct. 20 that they were requiring employees to be vaccinated.

As a federal contractor, the company was adhering to White House orders that call on federal contractors to get their shot by Dec. 8, unless they receive an exemption for medical or religious purposes.

It was later reported on Dec. 8 that GE workers were no longer required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 after a U.S. District Judge in Georgia blocked the implementation of a federal vaccine mandate.

It is unclear if they did ultimately go back to requiring it again when that injunction was later lifted by another federal judge or not.

Christopher DePoalo, Local 301’s business agent, called the pause mandate pause a victory at the time and explained, “I think it’s a win. Hopefully we can move forward.”

DePoalo said at the time that a handful of members, however, felt frustrated by the move as they had already gotten the vaccine under the impression that it was required to save their job.

“A lot of members feel kind of burned. They were frustrated that they had to go out and get the shot to save their jobs,” DePoalo lamented.