Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, in California is now ordered to pay a combined $7.8 million dollars to the six employees.
The six claimed religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate, but they say BART did not accommodate them, according to various sources. They subsequently lost their jobs.
Twila Brase is the president of Citizen's Council for Health Freedom.
She said in an interview with AFN the fact is that the truth comes out one way or the other, sometimes later rather than sooner.
"And so now we have a set of six workers that decided to stand up for their rights to say no to the shot due to their religious convictions. The transportation system said, ‘no, we don't care.’ The (workers) pursued the case, and they won. And so people can actually win. But sometimes it just takes a long time."
She added the truth of the matter is that there are religious rights. There are also personal exemptions. It shouldn’t be that hard for employers to recognize them and do the right thing.
"There are dangers with the shot. It's not been tested the way it should have been. These workers were smart to actually figure out a way to say no, but their employers said 'well then, you're out. We are terminating your position,' and now, they have won. So, these kinds of wins across the country in different states and different jurisdictions prove that the power of the people is still alive and well in this country. It just takes more work than it should to get those rights recognized and in some cases reinstated."
When employers ignore these rights, workers have a recourse, but it can take a while to see results.
Persuasion > Coercion
“In the meantime, other people who didn't stand up are dealing with injuries. Some of them died. Some of them are getting turbo cancer now, so it's a dangerous thing when people's rights are not protected and are not recognized. Mandates are always not a good idea. Persuasion is better than coercion, and these people should have all had informed consent."
