MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - In October, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, Austal USA took a hard line with employees at its shipyard on the Mobile River – get the shot or hit the road.
Brian Dasinger, a Fairhope lawyer who represents 50 former workers in legal challenges, said Austal improperly failed to consider exemptions based on religious convictions.
“There were over 200 religious exemptions that were submitted by Austal employees,
and Austal did not grant a single one,” he told FOX10 News, “They brought all of our clients in on a Friday in October and basically told them that if they didn’t take the vaccine, by the following Wednesday, they were going to lose their jobs.”
Dasinger filed complaints on his clients’ behalf with the Equal Employee Opportunity Commission. He said he has received the first three “right-to-sue” letters from the EEOC, paving the way for federal anti-discrimination lawsuits.
One of Dasinger’s clients, Theodore resident Michael Crenshaw, said he had worked for nearly a decade as a welder at the shipyard when he got the order.
Crenshaw said he and he his wife, Niki, are strong opponents of abortion and did not want any vaccine whose research depended even indirectly on the use of stem cells. He said he has been working as a handyman, at considerably less pay, since losing his Austal job.
“The bottom line was, you know, we’re not gonna go against our beliefs,” he said....
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