Southwest CEO says "meltdown"cost $75 million and that only half of staff have reported vaccine status
CBSN
Only half of Southwest Airlines' 56,000 employees have reported their vaccination status or applied for accommodation, said CEO Gary Kelly, with little more than a month to go before the Biden administration's deadline for airline staff to do so.
The airline risks losing its federal contracts should staffers not be fully vaccinated by the December 8 deadline. The U.S. government is the airline's biggest client, Kelly said.
In an interview Thursday with CBS News, Kelly said of those who have submitted their status, "a supermajority are vaccinated" and those who are not are being offered a financial incentive to get vaccinated.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.