OT United Sued for Packing NFL Charters With Young, Blond Crews

(Bloomberg) -- United Airlines Holdings Inc. packs its charter flights for sports teams with young, blond crews and bars older flight attendants from working the plum routes, according to a new lawsuit.

In so doing, the airline bases the value of workers “entirely on their racial and physical attributes, and stereotypical notions of sexual allure,” according to two veteran flight attendants who sued Friday in California.

The attendants -- a Black woman who has worked for the airline for 28 years and a Jewish woman with 34 years of tenure -- say that they both tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get assigned to work the charter flights.

United Airlines has contracts to provide air travel for some three dozen teams in the National Football League, Major League Baseball and National Collegiate Athletic Association, according to the lawsuit. Attendants who work those flights earn more and are provided with premium accommodations. They also sometimes get tickets to games, including playoff and Super Bowl tickets, and “extremely valuable” infield passes, according to the lawsuit.

Sharon Tesler and Kim Guillory said they were told by supervisors that they were unable to get work on the charters because they weren’t on “preferred” lists that were based on team preferences, according to the complaint.

They said they later discovered that young, white blond attendants -- with less seniority -- were given the assignments.

“United has created a despicable situation,” the women said in the complaint. It’s “as if decades of laws and policies preventing discrimination based on age, race and ancestry, and gender simply do not exist.”

United Airlines didn’t respond to a request for comment after hours Friday.

The women said they lodged complaints with the airline but were ignored.

United Airlines “has adopted and continues to implement procedures that are designed to ensure that young, white, blond/blue-eyed, female employees receive positions with the charter program, while more senior, and Black and Jewish employees such as plaintiffs, do not,” they said in the complaint.

The women are asking for monetary, including punitive, damages.

The case is Guillory v. United Airlines, Inc, 20-civ-03889, in Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo.

https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/united-sued-for-packing-nfl-charters-with-young-blond-crews

 

@THE HCP The Blazers use United charters, right? What's the attendants on your flights?

 

usatoday.com

'You matter to us': Delta Air Lines upgrades Black traveler harassed by white flyer


Demetria Poe is applauding Delta Air Lines for "taking a stance" against racism and discrimination after she was harassed by her seatmate during a recent flight from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C.

Poe told USA TODAY Wednesday that a white woman appeared to purposefully swap her American flag face mask for a Blue Lives Matter mask once realizing her seat assignment was next to Poe, a Black woman. Blue Lives Matter supports police officers and is a counter movement to Black Lives Matter, which aims to eradicate white supremacy and has organized nationwide protests in response to police violence against Black people.

"That woman was trying to entice me into an argument because there was no need for her to flip that mask in my presence," Poe said. "She didn’t do it for anyone else. It was as if she was making a statement and wanted me to know."

Morgan Durrant, spokesperson for Delta Airlines credited the Reagan Washington National Airport team with a thoughtful response..

Poe, 25, shared her experience in a viral Facebook post Tuesday. Despite the harassment, she was pleased with how Delta handled the incident and said she "will only fly Delta" after the company stood in solidarity with her and gifted her a Black Lives Matter pin along with a seat upgrade on her return flight.

Here's what happened, as told by Poe:

'I’m sitting here in the face of racism'

Despite feeling "uncomfortable" and "fearful," Poe said she didn't engage with her neighbor. "I feel like in that situation they do want to see a Black woman get angry," Poe told USA TODAY.

But, according to Poe, the woman initiated dialogue by saying, "I support blue lives because I support our officers."

"I explained to her blue lives do not exist," Poe recalled, adding that she remained "very calm" throughout the conversation. "The life of an officer exists, but there is no such thing as a blue life and that statement is nothing but a rebuttal to the fact that BLM has been disregarded time after time," she wrote in her Facebook post.

"Us saying black lives matter don’t mean all other lives don’t matter," she said. "We are saying if all lives matter, 'Why is it justifiable for anyone to slaughter Black people?' "

Poe, a kindergarten teacher in Minnesota, said she pointed to the unjust deaths of Philando Castile and George Floyd, who were killed by Minnesota officers. But Poe said the woman continued to spew inflammatory remarks, including, "Floyd didn’t die from suffocation. He was on drugs." (Autopsy reports stated Floyd died from asphyxiation from sustained pressure after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.)

"It’s so ironic because I got on this flight to go to the 'Commitment March,' " Poe told USA TODAY, referring to the "Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28 where demonstrators demanded long-lasting change to end systemic racism.


She continued: "I'm marching for something that my grandparents had to march for, and I’m sitting here in the face of racism once again. I can’t escape it. Now I’m having someone who is trying to test my humanity and my history all in one breath."

Poe said she was "grateful" that fellow passengers came to her defense and flight attendants offered to relocate the woman.

"I felt the genuine and sincere concern the flight attendants had for me and the people around me," Poe said. "I was shocked. I was happy, but I was still fearful. Living in Minnesota, I have seen how things get blown up. I just really wanted to get off the flight."

Delta Air Lines responds in support of Poe
The company replied to Poe's viral Facebook post, writing, "When we say Black lives matter, we mean it. You matter to us, Demetria."


Poe said Delta Air Lines went above and beyond to rectify the situation by upgrading her seat on her return flight back to Minneapolis. Poe said she also received a gift bag filled with goodies, including a Black Lives Matter pin engraved with Delta Air Line's logo.

"This is a major corporation saying that Black lives matter," Poe told USA TODAY. "It was very heartwarming. I cried because I look at God using me for the movement."

On Facebook, Poe added, "It’s time and situations like these were these companies need to take a stance."

"The actions by our people in the air and on the ground are what really sets us apart as a company bringing humanity to air travel," Durrant told USA TODAY.

Contributing: Morgan Hines

 

Isn't blond the spelling for men with that color hair, and blonde is the spelling for women with that color hair?

Are they saying that the NFL players are homosexual?

 

my friend and I used to do that joke in high school all the time. My friend Sam would always go "my fathers gay!"

which, ironically enough, was true. but we didn't know at the time.