The Job Creators Network (JCN) Thursday announced a lawsuit against the Biden administration just hours after the announcement that a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all companies with 100 employees or more will take effect on January 4.
That mandate is expected to affect 84 million Americans.
President Joe Biden set the stage for the mandate in a September speech.
“We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” he said at the time.
The details of the mandate were not ironed out until Thursday, when the directive was unveiled to the public, prompting a swift response from JCN and backlash from opponents of vaccine mandates.
“Today, Job Creator’s Network (JCN), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, is filing a lawsuit today in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit against the Biden Administration to block the implementation of its vaccine mandate on small businesses,” JCN said in a press release. “JCN is filing this lawsuit together with some of its small business members—as well as an employee—represented by Boyden Gray and Associates, a law and strategy firm that includes former senior officials from the U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor.”
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include JCN, Lawrence Transportation Company of Minnesota, Guy Chemical Company of Pennsylvania along with its Administrations Director Terri Mitchell, The Rabine Group of Companies, headquartered in Illinois, and the Independent Bakers Association, which represents more than 200 wholesale bakeries.
The press release said that Mitchell, who has had COVID-19 and tested positive for antibodies, is determined not to take the vaccine, which is why she personally joined the suit. Natural immunity from the previous infection is not an exemption from the COVID-19 mandate, which some view as anti-scientific.
Alfredo Ortiz is the president and CEO of JCN.
“The Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate is clearly illegal and will have a devastating impact on our small business community and our entire economy,” he said. “JCN is suing the Administration on the grounds that OSHA does not have the authority to impose such a mandate. Even if OSHA did have the power, there is neither the grave danger nor necessity to issue such a sweeping regulation.”
He continued:
The Administration’s mandate will exacerbate the worst labor shortage in recorded history by requiring small business owners to terminate some employees who wish not to get vaccinated while also shrinking the pool of job applicants available for hiring. Associated staffing shortages will force many of them to reduce capacity and economic output. The mandate also adds a new expense for businesses in the form of the costs associated with employee vaccination status tracking and required paid time off for employee vaccination. Employers who don’t comply will face significant financial penalties.
JCN recently shared these concerns in a meeting with the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs but our concerns went unheeded. While other business groups are either seeking compromises with the Administration or are completely asleep at the switch, JCN is eager and willing to lead this fight on behalf of America’s 90-million-strong small business community. We are going to court and we are determined to prevail.
JCN also announced that it will be running billboards against the vaccine mandate in Times Square.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Alfredo Ortiz” by American Legislative Exchange Council.
