Vehicles were parked on east and west sides of Highway 377 south in front of the 3M plant in Brownwood Tuesday morning as approximately 150 3M employees and other supporters protested mandatory COVID vaccinations.

Many who attended flew American flags on their vehicles.  Various signs were being held with statements such as Freedom to Choose, Freedom of Choice and No Mandates.

The protest was in response to a recent e-mail from 3M corporate to employees mandating COVID vaccination by December 8 or employees face losing their jobs.

Dustin Gamblin is a 17-year employee of 3M.  He was hired in 2005 at 25 years of age.

“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 grandkids aren’t going to have any freedoms,” Biessener said.

While the majority of those in the crowd were current  3M employees, others currently work for other local major manufacturers.  The gathering last for approximately 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.”