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Jester's Courtroom Coffee, Tea, or a Blondie?
| Coffee, Tea, or a Blondie? |
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| Wednesday, December 02 2020 |
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United Airlines is being sued by two veteran flight attendants who claim the airline is discriminating against older crew members because it is only using “youthful, white flight attendants – most of whom are blonde” on NFL charter flights for the Los Angeles Rams, as well as a number of other sports teams including the Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Pirates. The lawsuit, brought by Kim Guillory and Sharon Tesler, two long-serving United flight attendants, alleges older crew are barred from operating on charter flights and the airline determines the economic value of crew based “entirely on their racial and physical attributes, and stereotypical notions of sexual allure.”
The two women claim United’s “assignment of flight attendants for charter flights arranged by dozens of professional and collegiate American sports teams is based entirely and unlawfully on age, race and ancestry, gender, and physical appearance.” “United has not only demeaned its hard-working and long-standing loyal employees, but created an egregious workplace culture in which discrimination, harassment, and retaliation have taken root and flourished,” the suit continues. According to news reports, the flight attendants claim that every time they tried to pick up charter flights that appeared on the open marketing scheduling system they were denied, with younger blonde flight attendants with less seniority picked up for the trips. United denied the accusations and said the charter customers were allowed to pick from a list of flight attendants – “there was nothing United could do except comply with the customer’s request,” the lawsuit claims. United has “created a despicable situation,” the women further allege, asking the court to award them compensatory damages for discrimination and harassment they’ve allegedly suffered. In a statement, a spokesperson for the airline said: “United Airlines is proud of our track record on diversity, equity and inclusion. While we cannot comment on this ongoing litigation, the flight attendants included in our sports team charter program are largely representative of our overall flight attendant population in regards to age and race.” “Importantly, flight attendant eligibility to work a charter flight is based solely on performance and attendance and has nothing to do with age, race or gender.” —Source: usatoday.com
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