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- Two flight attendants accused United Airlines of racial and age discrimination in a lawsuit.
- They say they were removed from working charters for the LA Dodgers and replaced by “young, white, thin women.”
- United Airlines has denied these accusations.
Two flight attendants have accused United Airlines of racial and age discrimination in relation to flights chartered by the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, in a lawsuit filed in California’s Superior Court on Wednesday.
United Airlines has denied these allegations.
Darby Quezada and Dawn Todd, who have both worked for United for over 15 years, per the suit, say they were removed from working the charter flights in favor of young white women and were subjected to racist comments from United employees.
Todd is a 50-year-old Black woman; Quezada is aged 44 and of Mexican, Black, and Jewish descent.
The suit says that, after United was sued in 2020 by another two flight attendants alleging similar discrimination, the airline interviewed some flight attendants of color for the “highly coveted” Dodgers Inflight Charter Program.
Quezada and Todd were selected for the program after being interviewed, but the complaint says that several white flight attendants were later added to the dedicated crew without being interviewed.
The lawsuit said these women were “blatantly” selected because of their looks. “They are white, young, thin women who are predominately blond and blue-eyed,” it said.
Then in April, Quezada was demoted from the core crew of the Dodger program and removed altogether in August, the suit says. Todd was also demoted to another crew list, from which she and other minority flight attendants were never selected to work on these charter flights, according to the suit.
Todd formally complained to United in September, questioning why “as one of the two African American flight attendants, we have been placed at the bottom of the list denying us equal opportunity to participate in charters,” per the court document.
The complaint said that United didn’t take any meaningful action, and Todd suffered retaliation — including being called the “flight’s maid” by fellow employees and management and instructed to clean parts of the plane.
Meanwhile, Quezada said in the suit that other flight attendants told her that she was only on the crew because they needed “a Mexican to clean the bathrooms.”
In a statement to Insider, a spokesperson for United Airlines said the company “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,” they said.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Dodgers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.