United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has come under fire after a video surfaced of an interview he did touting his company’s diversity initiatives, which limited white employees while emphasizing more women and minorities in its workforce.
Kirby responded to a question about his “diversity targets” at the company, saying, “We have committed that 50% of the classes will be women or people of color.”
“Today, only 19% of our pilots are women or people of color,” Kirby said with a clarification that it was a high number for the airline industry.
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“White males don’t just dominate in the cockpits but also in the C-suite at United Airlines,” Axios interviewer Dan Primack said to Kirby in the resurfaced June 2021 interview.
Kirby said he was “proud” of the diversity efforts in his company and has been “focusing on” raising the diversity numbers across the company.
He explained that he purposely had women and minorities involved in the interviewing process at the company.
“DEI is going to get people killed,” tech businessman Michael Seifert said.
“This is insane,” author Brigitte Gabriel said.
Kirby has also been criticized for and has dealt with legal challenges alleging draconian discrimination and purging of religious employees who sought exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine. The lawsuit brief claims that internal company communications showed disdain toward these employees internally by proposing to require “accommodated employees to walk around with special stickers on their badges broadcasting vaccination states.”
United’s lawyers disagreed with Kirby’s proposal to single out unvaccinated employees. One internal communication said, “In fact, even some HR employees were taken aback by Mr. Kirby’s proposal, stating that putting stickers on unvaccinated employees’ badges is ‘like the scarlet letter…Oh my goodness. Who are we???”
Diversity initiatives in the friendly skies have expanded to other agencies.
Tech executive Elon Musk called out on Monday the Federal Aviation Administration’s efforts to recruit employees who suffer from “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions to expand diversity efforts in the agency.
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“Just had a conversation with some smart people who could not believe this is happening,” Musk said.
Alaska Airlines was widely criticized for their company’s diversity focus after 171 passengers and six flight crew members miraculously survived a flight when a door plug broke off at 16,000 feet.
