Tyson Foods to require vaccinations for employees

Tyson Foods Inc. announced it is requiring all of its U.S. employees to be vaccinated by this fall.

In a news release on Tuesday, Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King said that with the ongoing rise of new COVID-19 cases in the country, being vaccinated is the “single most effective thing we can do to protect ourselves, our families and our communities.”

All company employees in Tyson offices will have to be vaccinated by Oct. 1, while other employees are to be vaccinated by Nov. 1.  New employees will have to be fully vaccinated before their start date, according to the news release. 

King also said that fully vaccinated team members who sign up for their “Vaccination Verification Program” will receive $200. 

Nothing is more important than our team members’ health and safety. We’re taking the next step in fighting this pandemic and requiring all U.S. team members to be fully vaccinated by November 1. | https://t.co/5F1hDkZef8 pic.twitter.com/qu0fCj1upc

— Tyson Foods (@TysonFoods) August 3, 2021

Tyson Food’s new initiative comes amid the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., with the highly contiguous delta variant of the virus hitting unvaccinated people hard.

“We take this step today because nothing is more important than our team members’ health and safety, and we thank them for the work they do, every day, to help us feed this country, and our world,” King said.