Former flight attendant sues Delta Air Lines after it fired her for sharing anti-Trump editorial ...

[groundloop]

Source: CNN


Full Headline: Former flight attendant sues Delta Air Lines after it fired her for sharing anti-Trump editorial cartoon on social media

An employment discrimination lawsuit filed by a former Delta Air Lines flight attendant says she was fired for posting an image of former President Donald Trump wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood on her personal Facebook page.

The plaintiff, Leondra Taylor, who is Black, admitted she posted a cartoon image on her personal Facebook page depicting then-President Trump and then-former Vice President Joe Biden during one of their presidential debates in 2020, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in federal district court in Atlanta.

In the cartoon, Trump is pictured wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood as he stands at the podium across from Biden. The image includes a quote bubble over the head of the debate moderator saying, "Thank you, Mr. President, for wearing your mask."

[snip]

Delta "came across some political posts that it deemed to be in violation of its social media policy" during a review of Taylor's Facebook page sparked by another employee, the lawsuit states. In January 2021, a group of Delta employees told Taylor her posts were unacceptable and said it did not "tolerate, disrespectful, hateful or discriminatory posts," according to the lawsuit.




Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/13/us/flight-attendant-delta-lawsuit-trump-cartoon/index.html

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Hopes she wins, bigly.

It cuts both ways....your world-view beliefs, off the job, is your right....Delta should not be basing hiring/firing on the basis of private opinions shared with the public. Performance? Does Delta monitor/fire employees with militia type posts (say, Free Republic)? Is this is a hiring flag?

On the other hand, maybe this will hasten amass migration out of Facebook and back to a different reality.

[Bev54]

3. If they don't agree with her FB posts do what the rest of us do, unfriend her, very simple.

She still has first amendment right, why is it the RW thinks that they are the only ones who have a right to free speech.

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. This will be a case to watch.

Is Delta filtering out pro-democratic opinions?

[Random Boomer]

32. It doesn't work that way

All large companies have strict social media policies governing public employees statements. "Private" opinions are comments posted to a group of Friends, and you'd be wise to closely monitor who is in that Friends group if it also includes co-workers.

Whether you like it or not, that social media policy can be the basis for being fired. One of the perks of retirement is that I'll no longer have to be so cautious about what I post and where, but as long as I'm employed by a Fortune 500 company, I keep my public postings -- when using my RL name -- on the bland side. It's a condition of employment that I've accepted because I like having a salary.

[brooklynite]

34. Political expression isn't a protected class under Civil Rights laws.

If the terms were agreed to at the time of employment, the employee has no cause to sue.

Add to which, I'm willing to bet nobody here would be standing up for her rights if her opinions went the other way.....

[mainer]

2. Time to fire white anti-Biden employees, too

I’m sure they can find a few Delta MAGAS posting content on Facebook.

[DFW]

4. Let me guess. "a review of Taylor's Facebook page sparked by another employee" means this:

A Delta Trumpanzee found out she was NOT a Trumpanzee, and decided to look for ways to get her in trouble and fired.

I hope she wins a $25,000,000 settlement.

[Phoenix61]

5. Political speech is the most protected.

I predict Delta is going to lose.

[OAITW r.2.0]

8. It's a twofer!!! - In the pocketbook and with public opinion - most flying business don't relate to

Meal Team 6 Insurrectionist types.

Well played Delta!

[cstanleytech]

11. The 1st only protects us from being punished by the government and even it has limitations.

This however was not the government but rather a private company.

[Phoenix61]

12. True but I still think the fact it's political speech is

going to make it difficult for them to win.

[paleotn]

24. Depends....

If she identifies as a Delta employee on her facebook page, they can argue that what she posts there may have a negative impact on Delta. If she doesn't, then she's more than likely correct and Delta has overstepped. Same deal with Trumpers posting bigoted crap on their social media, IF such posts can be easily tied back to an employer, potentially damaging that employer's public image and business. Whether or not it's political speech is irrelevant.

The moral of this story is, stay anonymous on the interwebs. At the very least don't divulge too much personal info. If you do, things can get complicated.

[bahboo]

6. thought Delta was better than this...

gonna have to see how this case develops. I fly them a lot....

[GreenWave]

9. Delta supports white supremacists

That should be the cry as commuters boycott Delta.

[Bluethroughu]

10. Good-bye Delta.

Trump in a KKK robe, is exactly who he is. He has no problem with that group, so why did Delta.

[cstanleytech]

13. Delta is doing what a number of companies do which is to try and alienate as few people as possible.

Is it right? Personally I do not think it is but there is a lot of things not right in this world such as Trumps father not pulling out beforehand the night Trump was conceived.

[Bluethroughu]

15. I think Delta got the majority side wrong.

[LeftInTX]

18. Delta is saying that it isn't the full picture

They can't censor everyone.

Did she do this as an "Employee of Delta"? Companies have "no politics" policies. Did she do this as a private person?..Then it's her business and Delta will lose big time. I'm sure there are many RW employees on SM spewing RW crap and they don't get terminated.

Was she terminated for another reason?

[UpInArms]

14. They need to make certain that there are no

Brandon posts out there, then

[BWdem4life]

16. Hey, I made the right choice!

Booked Alaska instead of Delta, before reading this.

[LeftInTX]

17. Delta states that

the circumstances described by our former employee are not an accurate or complete explanation of the company's termination decision."

I really don't think Delta would terminate an employee over something like this mainly because there are probably many RW white employees of Delta who share all sorts of crap. Delta would be really stupid to single out an AA employee for this particular SM post.

Although my brother wasn't on SM, he was always spewing RW stuff and was a pilot for American.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

19. Bet there is a whole lot more to this story

[James48]

20. Truth is a valid defense.

[Initech]

21. And this is exactly why I stay off the social media grid as much as possible.

[rpannier]

22. I'll be interested in how this plays out

If she did violate policy and Delta has applied the policy to everyone she could easily lose

[exboyfil]

23. I took all references to my employer out of my social media

This happened after my daughter's friend was terminated from her employer for her opinion expressed on FB.

[paleotn]

25. Very wise.

Another aspect of the curse of social media. Compared to pre-social media days, our voices now are amplified by factors of 100. Use to be we could say pretty much whatever we wanted in public and no one cared. Unless we were wearing a company uniform and shouting it from a busy street corner, the impact to an employer was minimal at best. Social media changed all that. Stinks, but that's the world we live in.

[PerceptionManagement]

26. Delta "came across some political posts" Oh, they did, did they?

Care to elaborate, CNN?

[niyad]

30. another employee snitched, apparently.

[PerceptionManagement]

27. @Delta supports trump racism

Unless the FA was wearing her @Delta uniform, or saying something stupid like, "On behalf of @Delta airlines...", she off duty. It's none of @Delta's business.

[turbinetree]

28. So Delta...I think Donald Trump should be arrested for Espionage and

be is jail right now ...are you going to bar people that think this way off your planes?

And if you are completely blind to the issue maybe someone in your group should re-read this article.....

“These people love me. These are my people.”

BY BESS LEVIN

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021


https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/09/donald-trump-white-supremacists-my-people

[packman]

29. Oh, when I read things like this - I regret not becoming a lawyer

How can Delta possibly weasel out of this?

[Random Boomer]

31. All large companies have a social media policy

Posting any kind of political statement on social media is a risk for employees in those corporations. The social media policy is clearly stated in employee handbook.

For the past 10 years I've worked for a Fortune 500 company and I'm VERY careful about my postings. If I venture in to political posts, I do so in a defined Friends group and I avoid commenting on any political post marked as Public. I'm also really careful who I Friend among my co-workers. In fact, one of my Managing Directors -- who I suspect is quite liberal -- has a policy of never Friending any co-worker, out of an abundance of caution.

I've also removed my company name and employment history from my Facebook account, to again lessen the association between myself and that company so that any post can't be seen as a reflection on the company image.

The next time you applaud a RWNJ being fired from their job, just remember that the sword cuts both ways.

[AggressiveCanary]

33. Definitely not a fan

Of companies patrolling our private lives.