Complaint Filed Against 3 Airline Companies for ‘Illegal Racial and Sex Discrimination’

An American Airlines jet lands at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Calif., on Dec. 27, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Advocacy group America First Legal (AFL) is taking action against three major U.S. airlines for discriminating against employees on the basis of race and sex, calling for suspending their federal contracts.

AFL on Wednesday filed complaints against American Airlines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines with the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) for “illegal racial and sex discrimination” in employment practices, according to a Jan. 17 post by the advocacy.

Executive Order 11246 mandates that federal contractors who do business worth over $10,000 with the government in a year do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin when employing people.

The three airlines have contracts with the federal government and have collected millions of dollars over many years, thus requiring them to abide by the order.

However, the companies allegedly engaged in racial and sex discrimination in hiring under the guise of diversity initiatives, preferring women and individuals from minority communities in certain jobs, according to AFL. It asked OFCCP to investigate the companies for breach of contractual obligations under federal contracting law.

“Corporations that brazenly and illegally put race and sex above skill and merit should be prepared to face the consequences, and their federal contracts should be suspended or terminated for blatant violations of their contractual terms,” the advocacy said.

“Americans should be able to board a plane confident that their pilot, crew, and any involved parties are hired because they are the best candidates for the job, not because they fulfill arbitrary and racist hiring quotas. AFL will not cease in its fight for equality.”

In November, AFL filed federal civil rights complaints against the three airlines with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, citing similar concerns.

In its complaint against American Airlines, AFL alleges that the company has received more than $140 million in federal contracts since 2008. However, the firm “openly acknowledges—even touts—its racial, sexual, and gender discrimination in its recruitment and hiring programs.”

On its website, American Airlines says that the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are “foundational to the American Airlines culture and are embedded into the fabric of who we are as a company.”

In a now-deleted press release from June 2020, the company said that since the “representation of black professionals in our senior leadership is insufficient,” the airline intends to “do more to change this reality.”

This included assisting “black youth in developing job skills and expanding access to well-paying careers as part of our overall strategy to expand opportunities in our hub cities and Tulsa.”

“In other words, American Airlines implemented overtly discriminatory hiring practices based on the race or color of the individuals involved,” the AFL complaint stated.

In a January 2022 report detailing the progression of its DEI efforts, American Airlines revealed that it had “increased Black representation at the director and above level by 50 percent versus 2020” and “increased L5/L6 Black representation by 20 percent versus 2020.”

The company partnered with McKinsey to offer “Black, Hispanic, and Asian leaders the opportunity to participate in their Leadership Academies.”

“We are focused on expanding our Cadet Academy to ensure prospective pilots, particularly people of color and women, have access to the support needed to enter the profession,” American Airlines said.

United and Southwest

AFL alleges that Southwest Airlines has received nearly $330 million from thousands of federal government contracts and yet persists in violating Executive Order 11246.

“Since at least 2020, Southwest has engaged in discriminatory hiring and promotion processes under the guise of creating ‘more diverse, equitable, and inclusive opportunities and candidate pipelines,’” AFL stated.

In September 2020, the airline set a goal of doubling the percentage of “racial diversity” and boosting “gender diversity” among the senior management committee by 2025. AFL said it is “concerned” that the company is following through with such plans.

A 2022 report from Southwest Airlines said that it has “created required diversity hiring training for all Hiring Managers.”

“In 2022, of our more than 18,000 New Hires, 63 percent were racially diverse, increasing our overall racial diversity from 40 percent in 2021 to 44 percent. Additionally, 51 percent were women, increasing our gender diversity from 43 percent in 2021 to 44 percent,” the report said.

“Among Senior Leadership (Directors and Senior Directors), racial diversity increased from 15 percent to 17 percent and gender diversity has increased from 33 percent to 37 percent. ... Since 2020, we increased the racial diversity of our Senior Management Committee (SMC) Members by two percentage points.”

These statements are proof that Southwest Airlines “appears to be unlawfully considering sex, race, and color in its hiring practices,” AFL said in its complaint against the company.

Regarding United Airlines, the advocacy group noted that it had received over $150 million in federal contracts and that there is evidence of the company violating equal opportunity requirements.

In a June 2021 interview, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby described the diversity quotas implemented at the company’s training academy, saying that “50 percent of the classes will be women or people of color” in a bid to increase pilot diversity. At the time of the interview, 19 percent of the company’s pilots were from this demographic.

“Increasing diversity among pilots accordingly entails refusing to consider or hire qualified nonminority pilots,” AFL said in the complaint.

United Airlines’s 2022 “Corporate Responsibility Report” reveals multiple discriminatory benchmarks set by the company, including considering a “diverse makeup of candidates in 90 percent of new hire interview slates for management and administrative roles.”

Between December 2020 and December 2022, the company’s U.S. workforce saw a “3 percent increase in representation of women and 6 percent increase in representation of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups,” according to the report.

In addition, “in 2022, almost half of all promotions at the Senior Professional and Senior Leader level were of those belonging to underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.”

DEI ‘Destroying Objective Merit’

Gene Hamilton, general counsel and vice president of America First Legal, said the diversity quotas established by the three airlines are “wrong,” calling for such initiatives to be stopped.

“When you board a plane, the last thing you care about is the skin color of the pilot and crew onboard. 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,” he said in a statement.

“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.”

The AFL complaints come as the airline industry is under scrutiny over its hiring practices due to two recent accidents involving the Boeing aircraft this month.

“Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening,” billionaire Elon Musk said in a Jan. 11 post on X, formerly Twitter.

Author James Lindsay insisted that DEI was “never about proportionate representation.” Instead, it is about “destroying objective merit.”

The Epoch Times contacted United Airlines, American Airlines, and Southwest Airlines for comment.