Dallas-based Southwest Airlines has announced it will end all diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring practices following a federal civil rights complaint filed by America First Legal.
In January, AFL filed complaints against three major airlines—Southwest, American, and United—alleging illegal racial and sex discrimination in the airlines’ hiring and promotion practices.
According to AFL:
Despite receiving over $330 million in federal government contracts since 2007, Southwest Airlines appears to be engaged in discriminatory practices. 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.’
This week, Southwest Airlines acknowledged and agreed to discontinue its DEI practices, including quotas, benchmarks, and hiring preferences, as confirmed by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
“On your next flight, would you rather be told that your pilot checks the right DEI boxes or that he was hired because he was the best of all competing candidates?” said Will Scolinos, counsel for America First Legal. “Americans have had enough of corporations’ overt discrimination under the guise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It is unacceptable that corporations are so openly using everyday Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars to meet their unlawful race and sex quotas to achieve some ‘correct’ amount of diversity and representation.”
Scolinos further stated, “Discrimination on the basis of immutable characteristics is always wrong. AFL will continue to fight against discrimination as a substitute for merit in employment decisions—it’s not going to fly.”
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