Two longtime United Airlines flight attendants have accused the company of almost exclusively using young, white and thin female attendants to staff its charter flights for the Los Angeles Dodgers -- at the team's request, according to a discrimination suit obtained Thursday.
The suit alleges that United engaged in discrimination by removing the only minority female flight attendants from the Dodgers charter flights and replacing them -- at the Dodgers' request -- with "young white thin women who did not have to interview for the highly coveted positions," according to the suit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The flight attendants also allege that white United employees engaged in blatant racism, discrimination, and antisemitism towards minority flight attendants on the Dodgers charter flights.
United spokesman Charles Hobart said in a statement provided to City News Service that the airline "fosters an environment of inclusion and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We believe this lawsuit is without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously."
The Dodgers -- which is not named as a defendant in the suit -- did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Plaintiff Darby Quezada, who is of Mexican, Black and Jewish descent, claims she was called the "flight's maid" because they needed "a Mexican to clean the bathrooms," was told to stop speaking Spanish with a Dodger player because "we are in America," and endured antisemitic comments such as "you know Jesus died for you even if you don't believe" and "you don't look Jewish," the suit alleges.
Co-plaintiff Dawn Todd, a Black flight attendant with over 17 years of experience at the airline, alleges she suffered retaliation after complaining about the demotion of Black flight attendants, the denial of benefits and perks to Black flight attendants on the Dodger flights, and the racism and ageism she experienced herself.
"Major America corporations like United Airlines must understand that it is illegal to make staffing decisions based on an employee's race and looks, even if it is meant to please major clients like the Los Angeles Dodgers," plaintiffs' attorney Sam S. Yebri said in a statement. "United's blatantly discriminatory staffing decisions allowed the cancer of racism and antisemitism to metastasize on the flights themselves."
A similar complaint filed in 2020 alleged that United discriminated against Black and Jewish flight attendants for its athletic teams' charter flights by staffing them only with flight attendants who "fit a specific visual image," namely "young, white, female, and predominately blond/blue- eyed" flight attendants.
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