An estimated 150 people attended a peaceful protest Tuesday morning at the flagpole in front of the 3M Plant in Brownwood. The protest was in response to a recent e-mail from 3M to employees mandating COVID vaccination by December 8 or employees face losing their jobs.
Vehicles lined both sides of Highway 377 south in front of the 3M plant. Many protesters flew American flags on their vehicles. Numerous protest signs could be seen saying “Freedom of Choice”, “No Mandates” and “Freedom to Choose”.
By a show of hands, the majority of those in the crowd were current 3M employees while others worked for other local major manufacturers. Several employees came out of the plant to join in the peaceful protest.
Dustin Gamblin is a 17-year employee of 3M.
“We just want the people to know that this is not right. The vaccine should be your choice. Not the government’s choice, not your employer’s choice, it’s your choice. We’re not against the vaccine or the vaccinated people. Those people that chose to get vaccinated, they made that choice on their own. Nobody forced them to go down there. So that’s what the purpose of the protest was, to show this community, 3M and the world that we unite, we unite in prayer, we pray to God that he opens the eyes of our leaders, that they’ll make a change, that they will change their decision and do what’s right for the people,” Gamblin said.
Gamblin addressed a recent e-mail sent to 3M employees.
“The email stated to be fully vaccinated by December 8 or they will begin the process of termination. They didn’t specify what the process was or how many days after December 8 that you would still be employed. As far as I know, going by the e-mail, December 8 is the deadline,” Gamblin said.
Rick Biessener has had a 40-year career with 3M, starting at their St. Paul, Minnesota location, then to Kentucky and then to Brownwood in 1993.
“I’m a current employee for the moment, celebrated 40 years with 3M in June, so now they want to fire me in December for not getting the jab,” Biessener said.
He said he received the e-mail within 24 hours of President Biden announcing his vaccine mandate on September 9.
Biessener, a cancer survivor, has not received the vaccination.
“I’m at the point where I can retire but it’s not going to be the retirement that I was planning on after 40 years. But I am not going to – couple things – I’m not going to allow them to inject chemicals into me. I haven’t done that since I was diagnosed with cancer back in 2012. I have taken no additional chemicals into my body, just natural things that are good for you. The second thing is this a freedom issue. If we allow them to start taking away our freedoms a little at a time, our kids and grand kids aren’t going to have any freedoms,” Biessener said.
Prayer was a key part of the protest. Those who wanted to speak were allowed to share their thoughts and feelings. The national anthem was played before and at the end of the gathering which last for about 45 minutes.
An email from Jennifer Ehrlich of 3M Communications received Tuesday afternoon stated the following:
“3M cares about its employees and their families and we want them to be healthy and safe – our objective since the pandemic began. We value our employees and hope they will choose to stay at 3M. 3M will comply with the federal vaccination mandate because we are a federal contractor with more than 100 employees.”