CHICAGO—General Electric Co. has asked its U.S.-based workers to get COVID-19 shots or seek a medical or religious accommodation by Dec. 8 in order to comply with U.S. President Joe Biden’s executive order. Biden last month signed the order requiring federal contractors to mandate COVID-19 shots for employees and get them vaccinated by Dec. 8. As a federal contractor, GE said it is complying with the executive order. The company updated its vaccine policy for more than 50,000 U.S. workers last week. The Boston-based conglomerate is the latest U.S. employer to impose such a requirement, which has sparked a political fight. While supporters of vaccine mandates see them as necessary to pull the country out of the nearly two-year-old pandemic, critics are calling them unconstitutional and authoritarian. The White House has said vaccine requirements have driven up COVID-19 vaccination rates by 20 percentage points. The measure has drawn a sharp …