Seydel

LA GRANDE — With COVID-19 mandates on the way in October, implications are reaching the local level.

President Joe Biden announced a six-pronged COVID-19 action plan on Sept. 9, with the hopes of combatting the rising nationwide COVID-19 numbers. The plan requires all employers with 100 or more employees to require COVID-19 vaccinations or conduct weekly testing.

“This applies to all organizations across the board to all employees and organizations over 100,” La Grande City Manager Robert Strope said. “It does have the provision for a negative test, so that’s the biggest difference that I’m seeing in this.”

The city of La Grande is one organization that falls under the umbrella of the action plan, which was previously not impacted by mandates implemented by Gov. Kate Brown at the state level. Her previous mandates required health care employees, education workers and state employees to be vaccinated by Oct. 18. The Biden action plan widens the scope, stretching into the private sector.

The city is one of the 10 largest employers in Union County, alongside Boise Cascade, Grande Ronde Hospital, Eastern Oregon University, La Grande School District, Union Pacific Railroad, Wal-Mart, Outdoors RV Manufacturing, Northwood Manufacturing, Union County and Woodgrain Lumber & Composites.

The exact details of the mandate rule are yet to be fully announced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in how it applies directly to city employees, but Strope said that the city was informed that the rule will come out soon. The action plan requires staff to either be fully vaccinated or report a negative COVID-19 test on a weekly basis.

“It clearly will apply to the city’s full-time employees,” Strope said. “Whether it applies to part-time employees or seasonal employees, we’ll just have to wait for the rule to come out to determine that for us.”

Strope noted that the city is currently accumulating vaccination stats among city employees.

“That’s something that we’re in the process of gathering in anticipation of this,” he said.

At the county level, it is not known if the Biden COVID-19 action plan will apply to Union County, which has at least 200 employees, said Donna Beverage, a member of the Union County Board of Commissioners.

“We are waiting to find out if it applies to us,” Beverage said. “There are a lot of unknowns.’’

Sheriff Cody Bowen echoed the same sentiment, noting that he has not heard from the country regarding the action plan, but that he believes they are exploring some options.

Large businesses impacted by plan

A major implication of the action plan at the local level will be the rules for businesses with 100 or more employees.

Prior to the COVID-19 action plan, Union Pacific already required all employees to wear face coverings in work locations regardless of vaccination status. According to the Union County Economic Development Corporation, Union Pacific employs 250 workers in La Grande.

Outdoors RV Manufacturing declined to comment on the action plan’s impacts, but the company employs approximately 150. Boise Cascade (500), Union Pacific Railroad (250) and Wal-Mart (250) are three of the largest employers in the county affected by the action plan. According to the Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 outbreak reports, Wal-Mart had a 12-person outbreak that was initially investigated on Sept. 1 and experienced an outbreak most recently on Sept. 9.

The Biden action plan emphasizes an increase in testing availability, as well as providing paid time off for employees to get vaccinated or recover if they experience symptoms from the shot.

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is developing the rule and will issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to put the new requirement in place.

The action plan’s points of emphasis are vaccinating the unvaccinated, further protecting the vaccinated, keeping schools safely open, increasing testing and requiring masking, protecting economic recovery and improving care for those with COVID-19.

Union County tallied over 600 positive COVID-19 cases in September and is up to 134 cases in October as of Oct. 11.

Previous mandates

Several large employers in Union County have already been subject to vaccine mandates, either from the state or internal decisions.

Grande Ronde Hospital employs over 700 employees, providing health care services across the region. The hospital, as well as local school districts, fell under Gov. Brown’s vaccine mandate that was issued in late August.

Unlike Biden’s action plan, the statewide mandates do not offer an option for weekly testing.

Eastern Oregon University announced its own vaccine requirement in June for students and staff on campus, but will likely fall under the federal mandate.

The deadline for receiving the vaccination or filing a medical or religious exemption for students and employees is Oct. 22. The university’s human resources department handles employee exemptions, while student affairs coordinates with the student health center to handle student exemptions.

Eastern Oregon’s school year officially began Sept. 20, with classes beginning Sept. 27. According to the University’s COVID-19 dashboard, the current vaccination rate among students is 63.7% and the percentage of vaccinated employees is 81.5%.

“Throughout this pandemic, our primary goals have been to ensure a safe and healthy learning environment for the university community and to enable our students to make academic progress,” Seydel said. “A lot of people on campus have been collaborating almost non-stop on these goals to adapt classes, offices, programs and events, and provide the in-person experience that is so vital to so many of our on-campus students.”