A New Mexico state judge declined to block the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s management and operations contractor for enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate and other measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission on site, local media reported Friday.
More than 100 Los Alamos employees had sued the lab’s operations contractor, Triad National Security, in the First Judicial District Court of New Mexico, seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent firings that were to begin on Friday for those who declined to get a vaccination.
According to the local Los Alamos reporter, the judge in the case, in a Friday hearing, declined to grant the injunction, saying that the law appeared to go against the plaintiffs, and courts had upheld the constitutionality of vaccine mandates in the past.
There was no further action scheduled in the case at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. A group of people planned to protest the vaccine mandate on Monday in Los Alamos at 6 a.m. local time. Protesters were asked to meet on State Road 4 between White Rock Library and Pajarito Road, according to a notice from the grassroots group New Mexico Freedoms Alliance.
President Joe Biden in September issued an executive order requiring all federal employees and contractors to receive COVID-19 vaccinations or find new jobs, unless they secure medical or religious exemptions. At Los Alamos, at least, a religious exemption has meant taking leave without pay.
Most federal contractors were given until Dec. 8 to get their vaccinations.
An official with the National Nuclear Security Administration said Friday that most of the agency’s major site operations contracts had been modified to include a COVID-19 vaccination mandate. That includes the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., the Kansas City National Security Complex in Missouri, the Nevada National Security Site, the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
