On Monday, October 18th, representatives from GCCA participated in two meetings with officials from the White House and Department of Labor regarding the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring COVID vaccinations and testing for companies with 100 or more employees. The ETS currently under review at the White House before it is finally published and the Administration is taking a limited number of meetings with stakeholders regarding the policy. GCCA participated in two of these meetings, one with a food industry coalition and another with a broader business coalition. In both meetings, GCCA stressed the current labor challenges facing the food supply chain and cautioned that imposing vaccine and testing requirements on the food industry would place additional strains on the supply chain. Both coalitions advocated that companies in the food supply chain should be exempted from the ETS to avoid further disruptions caused by labor constraints. Once the White House review is complete, the ETS will be returned to OSHA and could be finalized at any point after that. GCCA will continue to engage with the Administration and coalition partners as the process moves forward.
