President Biden is set to meet with execs from Disney, Microsoft, and Walgreens to discuss his vaccine mandate plans, a report says

• Biden is set to meet US business executives Wednesday to discuss vaccine mandates, the WSJ reported.
• An unnamed official said that executives from Microsoft, Disney, and Walgreens were set to attend.
• The Biden administration is mandating vaccines or weekly testing for companies with more than 100 staff.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

President Joe Biden is set to meet with executives from Disney, Microsoft, Walgreens, and other corporations on Wednesday to discuss his coronavirus vaccine mandate for private employers, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

An unnamed White House official told the publication that the business leaders were expected to discuss the steps they’re taking to encourage vaccinations at their companies, and the effectiveness of any mandates they’ve introduced.

The Biden administration announced on September 9 that it would require businesses with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccines or weekly testing. This would affect more than 80 million workers across the US. The administration hasn’t said when this policy would come into force.

The administration will enforce fines of up to $14,000 per violation for employers that ignore these mandates, The Washington Post reported.

The official told The Journal that the following business leaders were expected to attend:

• Microsoft President Brad Smith
• Disney CEO Bob Chapek
• Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer
• Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO Greg Adams
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia President and CEO Madeline Bell
• Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream CEO Molly Moon Neitzel
• Columbia Sportswear Chairman and CEO Tim Boyle
• Louisiana State University President William Tate
• Business Roundtable President and CEO Josh Bolten

Columbia Sportswear’s Boyle, who confirmed to The Journal that he was attending Wednesday’s meeting, said that the company had encouraged its roughly 4,000 US employees to get the vaccine, but hadn’t yet mandated it, partly because the company had been worried about losing staff.

Boyle told The Journal that the federal mandate was “actually quite a good thing for leveling the playing field.”

“Companies like ourselves that want to have employees encouraged to the highest degree to get vaccinated – this is going to give us the ability to do that and not put our business at risk,” he said.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, in contrast, said in a statement last week that mandating vaccines and weekly tests would be “colossal undertaking” for companies.

Insider’s Áine Cain previously reported that businesses still have questions about the policy, such as how it would be enforced and what penalties they could face if they don’t follow the rules.