Guests wear masks. as needed. to attend the official reopening day of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, on Saturday, July 11, 2020.
Joe Burbank | Orlando Sentinel | Getty Images
Disney has reached an agreement with its unions to require all of its union employees working at Walt Disney World in Florida to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 on October 22, 2021.
The move comes nearly a month after Disney ordered that all of its hourly non-union employees in the U.S. need to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus by the end of September.
No agreement has been reached with the West Coast unions serving Disneyland Resort employees.
The Service Trades Council Union, made up of six affiliated unions representing approximately 43,000 members of the Disney cast in Florida, said the company would hold on-site vaccination events over the coming weeks for employees.
“Vaccines are safe, effective and free,” the union said in a note to members Monday, “As of today, the Pfizer vaccine is FDA-approved and the company offers it. Vaccination is the best way to to protect workers themselves from this deadly virus. “
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine, becoming the first in the United States to win the coveted designation and giving even more confidence to companies, schools and universities to adopt vaccine mandates.
Until now, the mRNA vaccine that will now be marketed as Comirnaty was on the U.S. market under an emergency use authorization granted by the FDA in December.
Employees with medical conditions or “sincerely maintained” religious beliefs will be eligible for the exemption, according to the union.
Disney believes its employees are fully vaccinated if at least two weeks have passed since the vaccination was completed, either after the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or after a single shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Disney has updated its security policies in accordance with local health regulations both nationally and internationally since the pandemic began. More recently, the company began requiring vaccination tests against Covid or a negative Covid test before entering its Paris theme park based on French guidelines.