A group of employees from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are planning a demonstration in Pasadena on Monday decrying a federal vaccine mandate that will require all JPL employees to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 or face potential termination.
Members of the group JPLNoVaxMandate plan to host their protest from 7 a.m. to noon at Oak Grove Drive and Foothill Boulevard, near Hahamongna Watershed Park, organizers said.
In keeping with a federal mandate affecting all federal contractors, including JPL, employees will need to have their final doses of vaccine by Nov. 23 in order to meet the requirement, as vaccination is not considered complete until two weeks after the final dose.
“Effective Dec. 8, 2021, vaccination will be a condition of employment for JPL employees and a requirement for badged affiliates and contractors working for JPL, regardless of whether you work on Lab, at another JPL facility, or elsewhere off-site,” the policy states.
Those who fail to meet the requirement will be placed on a six-week unpaid leave, JPL Business Administrator and, JPLNoVaxMandate member Taylor Ingram said.
“And at that point, if we’re not vaccinated, we will lose our jobs. JPL has not given us the option to continue testing. This applies for employees that are working at home full time, employees that are working out of state,” she said.
“So we’re going to lose our jobs and we believe that there are as many as 1,000 employees at JPL who have not received the vaccine,” according to Ingram. “However, we don’t have any way of finding out what that number actually is unless we start protesting and making other employees aware of our movement.”
The demonstration is not in opposition to vaccination, but in support of personal liberty, said JPL Engineering Development Technician and JPLNoVaxMandate member Caleb Macy.
“There’s a number of us that are very concerned about the implications to our freedoms. And if the government, or anyone, is given the right to tell you what you have to have in your body, that leads down a very dark path,” he said.
“We have both people who are vaccinated and not vaccinated in our group, but everybody is just wanting to stand for body sovereignty, the right to choose, and medical freedom,” Macy said.
Several employees expressed concerns over the approach to medical or religious exemptions to the policy.
A procedure will be put in place for employees to apply for exemptions on Nov. 1, according to Ingram.
“But we’re not given clear information on how it’s going to go. We’ve only been given examples of what the paperwork might look like and no clear process has been defined,” she said.
“They’re only giving us an eight-day period to submit for an exemption for this process, and then it’ll be closed. And there’s no timeline defined as to how long it’ll take to let us know, either, or any kind of appeals process in place.”
Macy also took issue with the exemptions policy.
“That seems like they’re trying to run the clock and not really allow reasonable accommodation or dissent from just falling in line and taking the vaccine or losing your job,” he said.
“Because being told: ‘Do this, or you lose your job, you lose what you’ve worked for, everything you’ve worked for in your career, you can’t support your family,’ — that’s not giving you a choice. That’s forcing you, and that’s wrong.”
JPL has traditionally been a secure place to work, Macy added. “It’s mind-blowing to me that while there is no category here in JPL’s guidelines, that this is a fireable offense.”
The issue is much larger than any single employer, he said.
“The protest is not just for JPL. It’s for everyone’s freedom and their right to choose what goes in their body and to be able to have strongly held beliefs,” he said.
“All of us in this group and a lot of other people here at JPL are looking at possibly losing our jobs, and we’re OK with that consequence, because these are our beliefs and our principles, and we’re going to stand on them,” Macy said.
Another employee, who asked that his name not be published, said it was daunting to face potential “career annihilation” over the vaccine mandate.
“I spent six years getting education for this field and I was not under the impression when I did, that I was going to be forced into medical injections for this career,” he said. “And now I’m faced with not being able to pursue my career further. So there’s a lot of us in this boat and it’s tragic. It’s cruel, honestly.”
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