Two Charlotte-based American Airlines flight attendants, using Facebook posts, played key roles in changing the airline industry, which has acted nearly uniformly to ask the federal government not to use its flights to transport migrant children being separated from their parents.
Among airlines, American acted first, declaring late Wednesday morning that it has “requested the federal government to immediately refrain from using American for the purpose of transporting children who have been separated from their families due to the current immigration policy.
“We have no desire to be associated with separating families, or worse, to profit from it,” the carrier said.
Within hours, every major airline took a similar stand. Also, President Trump signed an executive order meant to end the separation of families as a tactic for slowing illegal immigration.
The sequence of events in the airline industry reflected the ability of workers to act together to create social change.
“I’m proud that our pleas for humanity to American Airlines did not fall on deaf ears,” said a Charlotte based flight attendant (not one of the Facebook posters), who asked not to be named. “American’s decision to choose empathy over profits in this matter gives me hope.”
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