America First Legal’s (AFL) Center for Legal Equality sued major airlines for allegedly discriminating against applicants by hiring based on characteristics like race and sex, according to a press release.
AFL filed the complaints Wednesday against American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), arguing that hiring based on these immutable traits rather than merit alone violates civil rights, according to the press release. AFL also sent letters to the leaders of each airline alleging that these hiring policies focus on diversity over security and violate their fiduciary duty to shareholders.
/1🚨✈️BREAKING: We just filed a civil rights complaint against three major American airlines — @AmericanAir, @united @SouthwestAir — for hiring based on RACE and SEX, not SKILL.
When you’re hurtling in the skies at 500mph, do you want the best pilot or the DEI hire?
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— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) November 1, 2023
All three of the airlines have put forward initiatives to hire more women and minorities, including in leadership roles, according to the press release. American Airlines sought to increase black high-ranking employees by 50%, United Aviate Academy set a goal to have “50% of enrolled students who are women and/or people of color” and Southwest touted having 63% of its new recruits be “racially diverse” in 2022.
“When you board a plane, the last thing you care about is the skin color of the pilot and crew onboard,” America First Legal General Counsel and Vice President Gene Hamilton stated. “The only thing that matters is getting from point A to point B safely–yet these airlines apparently think that one of the most critical things they can do is discriminate against employees and potential employees based on race. It’s absurd.”
“Major corporations think that it’s okay to have ‘goals’ for the demographic makeup of their workforces, with no self-awareness of the illegal practices that they will undoubtedly take to achieve those goals,” Hamilton continued. “They are wrong, and they must stop.”
President Joe Biden’s Federal Aviation Administration is similarly striving to hire a diverse workforce by having initiatives for black people, Hispanic people, disabled people and women. The U.S. air traffic control is simultaneously facing numerous issues including staffing shortages, mistakes, technological challenges and close call incidents.
AFL, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. American Airlines declined to comment.
