Employees sue US Air, allege discrimination
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
By: Tom MacDonald
tmacdonald@whyy.org
Three current and former US Air workers have filed a class-action lawsuit against the airline. The suit alleges discrimination on the part of US Air, which dominates the gates at Philadelphia International Airport.
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The NAACP filed the suit on behalf of the three workers, who say they and other African American workers were treated as second-class citizens at Philadelphia International Airport. Jerry Mondesire is head of the Philadelphia branch of the civil rights group.
Mondesire: What we found is that they discriminated against African Americans by placing them in the most run down terminals, and they nicknamed the terminals where the majority of African Americans work as Compton, or Camden or the bottom and they send the majority of white employees in the International Terminals or the long-distance domestic flights .
A US Airways spokesman says the company is investigating the accusation, and has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination.
This has been happening for years, under the GM Nelson Comacho when he was over the Oakland station. I heard he transferred to Philadelphia.