The Tyson plant in Waterloo. (Photo from KOEL)

Tyson Foods is requiring that all its current employees to be vaccinated for Covid-19 by November 1t and the company will no longer hire unvaccinated people.

About 11,000 people work at Tyson facilities in Columbus Junction, Council Bluffs, Independence, Perry, Storm Lake, and Waterloo. The company says after months of encouraging employees to get shots, “under half” of its national workforce has been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Tyson’s CEO says the company is now mandating vaccinations because Covid mutations like the Delta variant are “more contagious” and responsible for nearly all current Covid-related hospitalizations and deaths.

Tyson will provide a $200 bonus to front-line workers who are fully vaccinated.

September 24 is the deadline for Tyson’s “leadership” to be vaccinated. Office workers must be vaccinated by October 1 and all other employees have a November 1 deadline for getting vaccinated. Workers who are represented by a union “will be subject to the results of union bargaining on this issue.”