One of the most popular clothing companies for farmers, ranchers, and blue-collar workers alike, Carhartt, is facing a massive wave of vicious backlash after the organization promised to enforce COVID vaccine mandates for all of its employees.
The day following the Supreme Court Decision to rule against President Biden’s vaccine mandates for employers, Mark Valade, the CEO of Carhartt, emailed every single employee informing all of them that the SCOTUS ruling didn’t change Carhartt’s policy on the vaccine.
The mandatory program for vaccination at Carhartt went into effect on the 4th of January and isn’t changing despite the court’s decision. Valade says they are putting safety in the workplace at the top of their list of priorities, and the ruling from the Supreme Court isn’t changing those core values. Valade says that he stands with the medical community in believing that vaccines are necessary to help maintain safety in the workplace and for the households of workers.
The email also concludes with the fact that Valade understands that there will be differing views about this, but that the company isn’t willing to risk a workforce that is unvaccinated.
His email triggered a huge wave of backlash, boycott calls, and thousands of former customers began burning their apparel from Carhartt. #BoycottCarhartt started trending on social media after the decision got the public. Thousands of tweets attacked the company for their decision, and many popular channels vowed to rid themselves of all Carhartt-branded items.
Adam Calhoun, a popular personality on social media, promised to throw away his favorite hat due to Carhartt’s decision. A hat that had been with him on the road everywhere and in almost all of his videos. He said that although the hat is probably the most sentimental item that he owns, he knew he needed to burn it and stand up for middle-class America. There were thousands of tweets like this one.
Despite all the pushback, Carhartt says they will continue with their vaccine mandate for their employees. They say they’re committed to safety in the workplace and that won’t change. They say they are standing behind the decision that they made because they truly believe it will help protect their employees and workforce.
Blake Canter
