City airport employees will be required to be vaccinated

CHARLOTTE — The city of Charlotte is mandating vaccines for airport employees, citing the Biden Administration’s vaccination mandate for federal contractors.

The TSA has notified the Aviation Department that all applicable contracts between the two include the federal contractor vaccination mandate, assistant city manager Brent Cagle said.

The first agreement will be effective on Jan. 18.

The federal contractor requirement will apply to all city of Charlotte employees who hold a Secured Identification Display Area badge. That includes aviation employees and employees from other departments that are assigned to the airport, like police and fire.

According to Cagle, approximately 200 employees impacted by the federal contractor vaccination mandate remain unvaccinated. Religious and medical exemptions are subject to approval by Human Resources. A testing option does not exist as an alternative for the federal contractor mandate.

The city will mandate vaccination for those impacted employees by Jan. 18. The city will require all unvaccinated employees, regardless of department, to take weekly COVID-19 tests starting Jan. 9.

City Councilman Tariq Bokhari said the city should be pushing back on the Biden Administration’s vaccination mandates.

“I think we need to be pushing back on these mandates, not just rolling over and accepting them,” he said.

Councilwoman Dimple Ajmera said she would not go along with any such efforts.

“There is a reason the federal government is mandating it,” she said. “It is about safety of our employees. It is about safety of the public.”

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Family stranded after Southwest Airlines cancels flight at Charlotte airport

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