Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz was surely pleased by a federal judge’s decision to stop (at least for now) the travel ban affecting people from seven Muslim-majority countries,” Shia Kapos reports for the Sun-Times.
“In a letter to employees last week, Munoz reiterated the Chicago-based airline’s commitment to diversity.
“‘We are a company representing every creed and conviction, background and belief. It is these differences that strengthen us and unite us as a company and a country,’ he wrote.”
Perhaps.
But:


“Some African-American United Airlines pilots involved in a lengthy lawsuit over allegations of discrimination at the airline are asking Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice to look into their claims,” the Tribune reported in September.
“The pilots allege Chicago-based United passed them over for management promotions because of their race and retaliated against them for filing civil rights complaints.”
CBS News reported:

The coalition is pointing to a 40-year old case as failing to provide meaningful change. In 1976, United entered a consent decree with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over diversity. As part of the agreement, United provided more than $1 million in back pay and agreed to hire minorities and women into upper-level jobs including pilot and management roles.
While that should have helped minorities and women climb through the ranks, the coalition is alleging that the white pilots reacted to the consent decree by creating a “secret, racist organization called “the Vault,” which they claim was geared to keeping black pilots from advancing at United.
“White pilots have disparagingly referred to African-American pilots as ‘consent decree hires’ and ‘equal opportunity hires’,” the coalition alleges.

According to a San Francisco union local, “The pilots claim that United has an ‘utter lack of diversity at the management level’ and has systemically kept black employees from entering the managerial ranks.”
On the other hand, “At United Airlines, all customer-facing employees, including its 25,000 flight attendants, undergo recurrent diversity training that includes lessons in cultural awareness,” Bloomberg reports.
And, of course, the pilots’ allegations aren’t necessarily true. I just hate to see a corporate CEO allowed to make moral claims without (appropriate) pushback. In this case, that would mean asking about (and researching) United’s track record, and what it’s done lately to strengthen diversity. Or you could just hand your recorder to a CEO while finishing your lunch.
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As long as we’re discussing United’s morals . . .
“In a settlement highlighting the need for public companies to implement – and adhere to – effective internal controls, United Airlines recently paid a $2.4 million civil penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to follow its own compliance policies and procedures designed to prevent corrupt payments,” three Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft lawyers wrote for Law 360 in January.
“By allowing management to bypass its internal approval process and authorize a money-losing route from Newark, New Jersey, to Columbia, South Carolina, in exchange for benefits from a senior official with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, United failed to enact an adequate system of internal controls and, as a result, prepared inaccurate accounting books and records.”
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House Grouse
“Proft says his donors want GOPs like Radogno who are negotiating ‘surrender’ with Dems ‘removed from the battlefield,'” Rich Miller reports at CapFax.
Radogno must be doing something right – whether it’s at the behest of the governor or not.
Last June, I wrote: “At one time I thought Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno might have it in her to be the one to break the stalemate – and thus put herself on a path to higher office – but she hasn’t even come close. Of course, if any other governor – Republican or Democrat – were in office, Radogno and her House counterpart Jim Durkin would have cut a deal by now. Their urgent loyalty to holding the budget hostage in order to get workers comp and tort ‘reform’ began only on the day the Rauner and his millions were sworn in.”
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The Police Union’s Fake News
The police union has been out at roll calls “dispelling lies and half-truths.”


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A Gift To Trump?
Losing the argument by suppressing it.
TVs That Really Were Spying On You
Vizio to pay $2.2 million to settle charges it secretly collected viewing histories of 11 million users.
Trump Puts Food, Farm Companies On Edge
Mexico is one of the top three markets for U.S. farm production.
How Can We Get More Kids To Report Concussions?
Breaking the “culture of resistance.”
Where Do America’s Racist Ideas Come From?
“Contrary to popular conceptions, ignorant and hateful people have not been behind the production and reproduction of racist ideas in America. Instead, racist ideas have usually been produced by some of the most brilliant and cunning minds of each era. And these women and men generally did not produce these ideas because they hated black people.”
Russia’s Golden Arches
“We say it every time: we are a Russian company. I don’t think there’s a single company that can call itself more Russian than us.”
Tips For Growing Blueberries In Wisconsin
Conditions must be just right for blueberry plants to survive and produce fruit.
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BeachBook
Toby Keith Decried As Too “Political” For Naperville Ribfest.

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Stalled Olive-Harvey Project On South Side A “Travesty.”

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Iran: Trump Shows America’s True Face.

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TweetWood
A sampling.


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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Chilling.

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Posted on February 7, 2017