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WHAT’S NEWS

What's News brings you the headlines and business news that move markets and the
world—twice every weekday. In 10-12 minutes, get caught up on the best Wall
Street Journal scoops and exclusives, with insight and analysis from the
award-winning reporters that broke the stories. Hosted by Annmarie Fertoli and
Marc Stewart.



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2021

11/4/2021 5:34:00 PM
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BIDEN'S COVID-19 MANDATE DIVIDES BIG EMPLOYERS

P.M. Edition for Nov. 4. Many businesses will have to ensure that their workers
are vaccinated or tested weekly for Covid-19 starting Jan. 4 under a set of new
vaccine requirements by the Biden administration. WSJ reporter Chip Cutter joins
host Lorie Hirose to discuss how the business community is reacting.

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be
in its final form and may be updated.

Lorie Hirose: Companies now have details and a deadline for getting their
workers vaccinated. But how is big business reacting to the government's
mandate?

Chip Cutter: Like most of America, we're seeing a real split response on these
rules and what the Biden administration is doing here.

Lorie Hirose: And why AT&T and Verizon are postponing their 5G rollouts. Plus,
tips for navigating new health and wellness benefits. It's Thursday, November
4th. I'm Lorie Hirose for the Wall Street Journal, filling in for Annmarie
Fertoli. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business
stories that moved the world today. AT&T and Verizon have agreed to postpone
their 5G rollouts so they can work with the FAA to address airline safety
concerns. People familiar with the matter say the pause is related to 5G's
potential interference with cockpit safety systems, like those that help planes
land in bad weather. Aviation industry officials say limiting the use of those
systems could disrupt flights in cities where there are wireless towers on the
ground. AT&T and Verizon say there is no evidence of that, but the companies
have pushed back their a plan to start using the frequency to January. The
electric truck startup Nikola will likely pay $125 million to settle an SEC
investigation into allegedly misleading statements made by the company's founder
and former CEO, Trevor Milton. Nikola disclosed the payment in a securities
filing and said it plans on seeking reimbursement from Milton, who was indicted
on fraud charges in July. The E-truck maker was one of several transportation
based firms that went public in 2020 through a blank check company, or SPAC. The
SEC has been closely scrutinizing the SPAC market, which allowed many young
companies to go public at high valuations, even before they have revenue. Our
Ben Foldy covers the auto industry, including Nikola, and says there has been a
flurry of activity in the EV sector.

Ben Foldy: There was a lot of money went into the space over about eight months.
And because of that, there's a speculative boom in some ways in a lot of those
stocks. And underpinning all that is Tesla, right? So a lot of money into a lot
of companies without a lot of scrutiny from investors, necessarily. And then as
those companies started being criticized by short sellers and more skeptical
voices, it seemed that regulators, whether financial or criminal, started taking
deeper longer looks at these companies that had drawn a lot of attention to
themselves and raised a lot of money.

Lorie Hirose: After months of negotiations, House Democrats are getting ready to
vote on both of the party's spending packages. In a closed door session, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hopes to get the social spending bill to the floor
today, and then vote on the infrastructure bill on Friday. Here's Pelosi at a
press briefing.

Nancy Pelosi: We're going to pass both bills. But in order to do so, we have to
have votes for both bills.

Lorie Hirose: The Senate has already passed the trillion dollar infrastructure
bill, but progressive House Democrats have been blocking a vote until they could
agree on details in the social spending and climate bill. The bill still needs
to pass the Senate, which might not happen until after the infrastructure bill
becomes law. Alphabet, Google's parent company, is investing a billion dollars
in futures exchange company CME, and also struck a 10 year deal to move the
company's core training systems to the cloud. Under the deal, Google's cloud
unit would power markets that handle trillions of dollars of trades each day.
The tech giant calls the investment a reflection of its commitment to
transforming the financial system. Cloud providers have been jockeying for stake
in the financial services sector. Amazon, the largest in cloud services, has
already completed pilot projects in Europe and Singapore. Google is the fourth
largest, behind Microsoft and Alibaba. Initial jobless claims fell to 269,000
last week, closer to pre-pandemic levels. The claims, which are a proxy for
layoffs, show that employers are holding onto workers. But the labor
participation rate still remains lower than before the pandemic. Separately, the
number of Americans continuing to file for unemployment has dropped to its
lowest figure since mid-March 2020. Strong job growth will depend partly on
Americans going back to work. Some retired, but others left the workforce
because they didn't have childcare or were afraid of getting COVID-19. And the
UK has become the first country to approve a new COVID-19 drug developed by
Merck. The pill, marketed under the name Lagevrio, can be taken at home and has
shown to reduce death and hospitalizations in COVID patients with higher risks.
The US Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing the pill. Agency
advisors are scheduled to meet later this month, and approval could come by the
end of the year. Other countries are likely to follow suit. Coming up, employers
are split over the Biden administration's new COVID-19 vaccine and testing
rules. We'll talk about that after the break. The Biden administration has
spelled out new details about its COVID-19 vaccine requirements for private
employers. Large companies will have to make sure their workers are vaccinated
or tested weekly for COVID-19 under a new set of rules released by OSHA today.
The rules apply to private employers with at least 100 workers, and go into
effect January 4th. Our reporter, Chip Cutter, covers workplace, management, and
leadership here at the Journal, and has been talking to business leaders about
the new regulations. Hey Chip, thanks so much for being here.

Chip Cutter: Thanks, Lorie. Good to chat.

Lorie Hirose: So can you tell us what's in this mandate?

Chip Cutter: This answers a lot of questions that employers have had about what
comes next. Many have been waiting for weeks about what is in these rules and
how it might affect their workplaces. And this is going to have a broad effect
on companies across America. This rule really creates a division between big and
small companies. Those with fewer than 100 employees don't need to comply with
this, while larger companies do. And I've been talking to many employers who
have expressed a concern about this. I spoke with the CEO of Jetco Delivery,
it's a trucking and logistics firm based in Houston. The company has a couple of
hundred employees, and the CEO told me that he's worried that in a tight labor
market like we're experiencing right now, trucking companies with fewer
employees may be able to poach his drivers and others, since they wouldn't have
to comply with these rules.

Lorie Hirose: The administration estimates that the rule covers some 84 million
workers. So companies are really looking at how to implement this in a way that
will keep their workers happy and back in the office.

Chip Cutter: That's right. There are a number of steps for companies to take
here. And one question is whether this affects return to office timelines. I
think it's a little bit too early to say there. But companies will have to
figure out a system for either asking employees if they've been vaccinated, or
ensuring that they're able to get tested weekly. A couple of things of note, the
administration noted that companies don't have to pay for tests for workers.
That they could put that on employees. But many of the employers that I spoke
with said that they think that's unlikely. That in this kind of tight labor
market, it might be unrealistic to expect workers to shoulder the burden of
testing. And of course, then there's also questions about the availability of
tests, about the logistics and administrative process for all of this. So lots
of questions about what comes next.

Lorie Hirose: Can workers get time off? Can they get a paid day off to go get
vaccinated?

Chip Cutter: So workers can get paid time off to be vaccinated under these
rules. And the administration has released a number of guidelines for other
workers. For example, those who work entirely outside are not covered by these
rules. Remote workers who work exclusively at home do not need to be vaccinated
or tested weekly.

Lorie Hirose: So what about enforcement and potential consequences for these
businesses?

Chip Cutter: The government will be enforcing these rules, but I think there are
some questions among workplace specialists about how this will really work in
practice. But the administration has said that there could be fines of up to
around $14,000 per violation for those who don't comply. That could add up
pretty quickly for businesses with lots of employees and with locations across
the US.

Lorie Hirose: Is there any indication that this could be challenged in court?

Chip Cutter: There are already early indications that this could be challenged
in court, from state attorneys generals and others. And we've seen a number of
trade groups already express skepticism about these rules. The National Retail
Federation, for example said this puts an undue burden on retailers ahead of the
holiday season. So like most of America, we're seeing a real split response on
these rules and what the Biden administration is doing here.

Lorie Hirose: And does it depend a little bit too, upon the political leadership
in the state where the companies are located?

Chip Cutter: How companies think about this in part depends on the political
views among their leaders. But it also will be affected by the climate in a
number of these states. Companies say they have a diverse workforce, with some
opposed to vaccines, really opposed to any of these mandates. And others say
they largely comply with them or that their rules already address what's in
these regulations. And so it's a real mixed response.

Lorie Hirose: And the deadline is January 4th. Is that timeline in line with
when a lot of corporations are hoping to get workers back in their seats after
the first of the year?

Chip Cutter: That is in line with what many companies expect in terms of their
own return to office timelines. We saw a number of companies this fall, push
dates back to January 2022. And so these deadlines will really coincide with
when many white collar employers hope to start bringing people back into
offices.

Lorie Hirose: So Chip, are there some companies that have jumped ahead and
already taken care of making sure their workers are ready for this mandate?

Chip Cutter: There are. We've seen companies across the corporate sphere in
recent weeks, ranging from United Airlines to Tyson Foods already putting
vaccine mandates in place ahead of these rules. So some companies have a jump
start. Other big employers will have to then make changes as a result of these
rules. And so we're way need to see more companies announce their policies in
the coming days and weeks.

Lorie Hirose: That's Wall Street Journal reporter Chip Cutter. Chip, thanks so
much for joining us.

Chip Cutter: Thanks, Lorie. Good to be here.

Lorie Hirose: And finally, November is open enrollment season for company
provided benefits, with millions of Americans weighing their options for next
year. And there are pages and pages to choose from. Some people may just go with
the benefits from last year, but WSJ personal finance reporter J.J. McCorvey
says, it's worth paying attention to some new benefits that are now being
offered.

J.J. McCorvey: A few of those are pet insurance. A lot of people adopted dogs,
for example, during the pandemic. And are curious to see if maybe their
employer's pet insurance policy might be cheaper than what they currently have.
A couple others are financial wellness programs and mental health programs.

Lorie Hirose: We have a lot more about new coverage options and the costs on our
sister podcast, Your Money Briefing. And that's What's News for this Thursday
afternoon. We'll be back tomorrow morning. If you like our show, please rate and
review us wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lorie Hirose for the Wall Street
Journal. Thanks for listening.

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HOSTED BY


ANNMARIE FERTOLI


HOST, SENIOR PRODUCER, WSJ PODCASTS, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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Annmarie Fertoli hosts the PM edition of the What's News podcast. She joined The
Wall Street Journal in 2017 after more than a decade in public radio: first with
WFUV at her alma mater, Fordham University, then at WNYC, where she worked as a
news host, reporter and producer for All Things Considered. Annmarie has also
worked as a reporter and arts and entertainment editor for weekly newspapers on
Long Island and in Queens. Her first print story for the WSJ focused on how the
popular video game “Animal Crossing” became a form of therapy during the
coronavirus pandemic—for her and many others.


MARC STEWART


HOST AND PRODUCER, WSJ WHAT'S NEWS PODCAST, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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Marc Stewart is the AM host of the What’s News podcast. He joined the WSJ in May
2020 from ABC News in New York. He’s served as a television anchor and reporter
across the country, including stops in Denver and Nashville. Marc has also been
awarded several international reporting fellowships, taking him to North Korea,
China, Japan and Europe. In addition, he’s been a contributor to the
aviation-focused publication The Points Guy. Marc recently completed a Masters
degree in business and economic reporting from New York University and Stern
College of Business. In his free time, Marc is an avid runner and swimmer.


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