United Airlines has addressed the civil unrest that occurred on Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol which shocked the world and left five people dead.
United Airlines Addresses Civil Unrest At U.S. Capitol In Note To Employees
A note to employees titled, “We are stronger when we’re united” condemns the violence that occurred but embraces a more optimistic tone for the future:
We watched yesterday with a mixture of anger and sadness as a large group of protestors and rioters marched on the U.S. Capitol, occupied federal buildings and put on a terrible display of vandalism and violence. For those of us who call the U.S. home, we can all agree that these actions were not a reflection of who we are as Americans.
But, there was also another series of events that took place overnight that give us hope: both houses of Congress re-assembled after the riots, certified – on a bipartisan basis – the results of our Electoral College and formalized the election of Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and Kamala D. Harris as our next President and Vice President of the United States. Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of our democracy and by coming together and finishing their work, Congress sent an important message to our country and the rest of the world.
Still, the weeks and months ahead are likely to be extremely challenging. A transition of power against the backdrop of a raging pandemic, a struggling economy and, yes, a deeply divided electorate, means that the near-term path for our nation will be difficult.
But we continue to believe that there is far more that unites us than divides us. If there is one thing we’ve learned after going through the most significant crisis in the history of commercial aviation, it’s this: we are stronger when we’re united.
We stand ready to work alongside the new Administration, as well as leaders in both parties, to help bring the country together, defeat COVID-19, revitalize our economy, promote racial equality and drive sustainable growth around the world.
The note was signed by CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart.
This communication was sent to me by there different employees. One just forwarded the letter and the other two added commentary. The commentary simply showcases what a divided nation this is and how the notion that “we are stronger when we’re united” may be nothing but a hollow epithet during this turbulent era.
One employee, who falls on the Trump end of the spectrum, was fuming. She noted United’s focus on “vandalism” and “violence” was particularly egregious considering the carrier never condemned the violence and vandalism that occurred during protests over the summer.
But another employee, who falls on the other end of the spectrum, also expressed anger. She was incredulous that United would focus on vandalism when five people ended up dead and the mob was engaging in a treasonous insurrection. “Call it like it is, baby,” was her final remark.
CONCLUSION
United crew members are being kept out of downtown Washington, DC for the time being. Meanwhile, United is looking ahead to what it hopes will be calmer days in the weeks ahead. But even at United Airlines, cracks of division will weigh heavily on the weeks ahead.
I see no benefit from the United press release. There are too many different opinions to satisfy or disappoint with a press release that has nothing to do with air travel. There are more opinions than only “election stolen, congressional offices must be trashed” versus “this was an attempted military coup, protesters should be executed for treason”.
Instead, United should explain why it breaks guitars. Jk
Well this is 2021 and every company needs to send out a statement on every public event, even though no one asked for it. I
If you don’t demonstrate your allyship, you are presumed to be an enemy of the cause, a counter-revolutionary.
Which is precisely how Trump operates, yet here you are still sucking up to him as you don’t really have much of a life.
They have to appeal to the Woke people
Matthew, what happened in DC this week was atrocious, and should be regarded as so by even the most ardent Trump supporter. I don’t know why you try to play both sides here by giving voice to someone who erroneously makes comparisons to BLM protests. Trust me, I do not support the BLM protests and have quite a reputation here in the comment section most probably, but even I won’t make such ridiculous comparisons and would not want to give audience to anyone who does.
As a Trump supporter, I can tell you that the vast majority of us find it a much greater travesty that a fake, cheating “president elect” is about to take office. Most of us watched with amusement as that group of patriots stormed the corrupt building and made the scumbag elite quiver for a few hours.
Why weren’t you there storming the Capitol with your fellow Klansmen…um patriots?
This patriot was working. I took a bunch of time to travel before and over New Years so I had some catching up to do. Watching those elitist scum practically wet themselves however was very amusing.
The BLM protests (read: riots) were far more destructive and resulted in far more bloodshed than the riot at the Capitol. Obviously the Capitol represents something beyond what property might have been besieged or destroyed by rioters last summer. Why were Democrats so reluctant to denounce the violence done in the name of BLM? People like Jerry Nadler were claiming Antifa violence was a myth. It would appear there are very fine myths on both sides.
United should implement a political ideology test prior to employment just to make sure that they’re on the “right” team. They could also have a religion test to make sure that they aren’t an adherent of one of those “bad” religions. And while they’re at it perhaps a sexual orientation test just because. Msny of you excused arson, assault, murder, theft and the destruction of whole city blocks. Those who screamed F*** The Police and Defund the Police are yelling “where are the police”! You can’t have it both ways. This Capitol thing was no worse. A woman (a white woman) and a cop was killed….this is music to most of your ears. I’m not wealthy enough that Biden’s policies will really affect me either way. At this point I don’t care. Let them take down America…..most of you hate it anyway.
@ Andy K — You have it exactly right.
The “fuming” Trumpist United employee would, if nothing else, do well to remember that the taxpayers are currently incurring tremendous debt on the pretense of keeping her employed. There is literally nothing this country hasn’t given her. To make the intellectual leap required to conflate violent insurrectionist sedition with “but some people in Portland lit a dumpster on fire” is mind-boggling; to be furious at one’s employer for not joining you in your delusional fantasyland is something else entirely.
You’ve just demonstrated a total lack of awareness. You don’t understand her point of view, and don’t even want to.
Excellent points as always Tiffany!
@Tiffany Funk
Do you really believe the nutcases who stormed the Capitol were going to take over the government and force Trump into office? They were a dog chasing a car and didn’t know what to do once they caught it.
That you describe the violence and destruction of last summer as “some people in Portland who lit a Dumpster on fire” demonstrates how biased you are to the leftist cause. The wrongness of the Capitol rioters does not in any way absolve the perpetrators of last summer’s mayhem, nor the refusal of Democrats to denounce it. Will Biden-Harris staffers be sending money to bail out the Capitol protesters as they did with child molesters in Minnesota?
The pro-Trump United employee is likely upset at United’s (and other corporations’) virtue signaling. Why condemn the Capitol riot but not the massive, widespread rioting of 2020’s “Summer of Love?” Perhaps because taxpayer-funded public health officials deemed those “mostly peaceful” protests essential activities?
Incite violence much?
https://twitter.com/CaldronPool/status/1347005939971330049
Thanks for the sensible comment.
The inability of many people to differenciate between insurrection and any other protest is amazing.
How about attempted murder of police in Seattle and Portland by burning down police stations while blocking them in? Guess that’s ok with you since it is Antifa?
Remember, they worship someone who talked about the “fine people on both sides” at Charlottesville. They seek to find false equivalencies everywhere they can.
@UA-TDS
Are you implying Antifa were not fine people? I would concur with that.
@Trump bootlicker
Antifa = Anti-fascist…somehow didn’t really hear much about them til a near-fascist president took office 4 years ago.
Sorry so many of your friends got arrested Wednesday! You must be grieving.
Antifa factions formed long before Trump ever ran for President. Nice try. And throwing around the epithets “racist” and “fascist” in the indiscriminate manner of hysterical leftists such as yourself merely serves to rob them of any power or meaning.
If Trump were the fascist dictatorial bogeyman you make him out to be, do you think there would be even be any protests or would he just have installed himself as dictator? Your incessant bedwetting is an insult to those who have actually suffered under authoritarian rule.
I never voted for Trump and I don’t care for protests, leftist or rightist. It is clear to me that the leftist brand of illiberalism (read: fascism) is far more dangerous than the right.
You should pay a visit to Minneapolis and go through the ruins of one day used to be the trendy Uptown area. It was torched and destroyed by protestors. Thousands of people lost their jobs because most businesses that were there decided never to reopen again. Real estate is now worthless in that area of the city. Also, almost 100 restaurants closed down in the city for good since nobody will ever want to go back there again. I don’t remember United mentioning any of that.
Hmm, a bit of an exaggeration? Restaurants are closing by the hundreds in cities everywhere..not because of riots. Because of a freakin pandemic.
I live in DC and can assure you that after BLM protests those restaurants that wanted to be open, were. Those that wanted to repair windows and damage, could. Those that closed permanently did so as the pandemic was killing them.
Finally, you seem to live in an alternate universe where people protesting and angry over deaths of innocent back people at the hands of police, given 200 years of systemic racism, is the same as those protesting on behalf of a false idol and bizarre conspiracy theories that are unhinged and supporting white nationalist doctrine.
I live in Minneapolis. I read the local paper. Come here and see for yourself what the rioters did to the city. Yes, pandemic has some implications in restaurants closing but the majority of the ones closing happens to be in the area destroyed since nobody wants to even get close to the place. I live in a suburb 10 miles from the destruction. There was pandemic here as well but not a single restaurant is closing. Exaggerating??? Again, come here and see. Just to name a few, look for these stores that used to be located in the vibrant Uptown area of Minneapolis: Apple Store, Arcteryx, Timberland, North Face, Columbia, Victoria’s Secrets,…. and see if they plan to ever open again. The entire place looks like an war zone after it was hit by missiles. Oh, and United didn’t say anything about it.
Perhaps then next time perhaps your police will consider the consequences of putting their knee on the neck of a black man on the street and murdering him in broad daylight. For every real action is a reaction.
In the meantime, the reaction of Trumpist Deplorables is nothing more than to pray to false prophets who scream about fraud and pedophile conspiracy theories.
How dare you compare them.
What will you do if Chauvin is acquitted? Do you really think it will be so easy to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to kill Floyd? Do you realize he was following MPD policy in restraining Floyd? Why did he make sure that medical assistance was en route if he wanted Floyd to die?
It would be better if you worked to convince suspects that resisting arrest is not fruitful and quite possibly lethal rather than spouting leftist tropes about a convicted armed murderer who was resisting arrest while high on fentanyl and with meth and marijuana in his bloodstream. You realize Floyd was driving around high on fentanyl, right? Think of the children!
The BLM riots were part of a years-long Marxist plan to destroy America based on lies. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and George Floyd are hardly innocent martyrs.
Er, robber, not murderer. But driving while high on fentanyl could be inchoate murder!
So when you get pulled over for a DUI you should expect the same, white boy.
Are you not white, Stuart? I have been pulled over before and threatened with a DUI charge. The pretext for the stop? A broken taillight. Clearly racist. Fortunately, I blew a 0.0. I also didn’t resist arrest, so I never feared for my life. Why do you assume that I am a white boy? Racist and sexist. You just can’t help but show your true colors.
Do you think Floyd would have not been subject to arrest if he had been pulled over for a traffic violation? He was driving while high on fentanyl, after all, and clearly agitated.
Too bad people a don’t care about the ongoing leftist riots around my condo in Seattle. My condo is boarded up. The government building across the street has an 8′ tall concrete wall to protect it from being burned down.
Why are leftist riots tolerated but right wing are not?
You’re right…I care more about the US Capitol than your condo.
Let me know when “Antifa” storms Congress…oh wait you guys tried that conspiracy theory too!
Pete,
Why does the Capitol matter?
“Its only property damage” oh and “They have insurance”
The riot was basically a meeting of the unintelligent and the stupid. Anyone who can manage to support Trump clearly doesn’t care about the USA.
Biden/Harris 2020! The adults are back in charge, scientists are listened to again, and there is only one “truth”.
Yeah science….like how you can drive to the state capitol and have your birth certificate changed to say that you were born a pepperoni pizza.
“Divorced from reality” incarnate.
Let me guess – you also thought that legalizing gay marriage would lead to rampant polygamy, or even human/animal marriage?
Phyllis Schlafly was right. It was never just about equal rights or gay marriage. I love how leftists talk about being adults and following the science when they want to infantilize the population and have no idea how science actually functions. Liking IFLScience or wearing a NASA tshirt doesn’t make you a rocket scientist. Admitting that obesity is a far greater threat to public health than COVID-19 would be a good start in demonstrating fluency in science, fatty.
Some people are interpreting the election result as a total repudiation of Trump; the reality is quite different: 75 million votes, many other supporters who didn’t/couldn’t vote.
As for the riot. Truly, there’s zero difference between that mob and the ones seen over the last few months , perhaps other than skin colour. Are we meant to be more understanding/ forgiving because the ferals ‘liberating’ big screen TVs from shops were doing so to honour victims of police violence? The suggestion is pukeworthy,
There may be slight variations in the reasons for their disaffection…but the 2 groups have more in common with each other than they do with the other 99.99% of the population ( including the overwhelming majority of Trump voters )
That sleazebag from United would sell his grandmother for sixpence; anything he says is through a prism of self-interest.
Gay marriage? No, I don’t think that at all but there’s nothing really scientific there either. Marry who you want. I don’t care. As far as animals, it sounds like that’s your thing.
Paolo,
You’re trying to talk sense with Americans…..you’d have an easier time trying to reason with a rock.
You are way off base on this one. 200 years of systemic racism and the killing of innocent black people by police is hardly the same as following a false prophet and believing in completely absurd conspiracy theories. One is truth. The other is a lie. See the difference?
I don’t deny the issue of racism, merely that looting and other forms of violence have very little to do with it; rather it’s exploitation of the circumstances for personal gain. Extreme political correctness requires us to not condemn it, while we are free to criticise the appalling events in DC.
Of course racism is an enduring stain, just as it is in Australia, Canada, the UK..
That you even utter the words “systemic racism” without irony shows how brainwashed by critical race theory you are. Abominable racism of the past does not equal “systemic racism” of the present. You subscribe to the miasma theory of racism. It’s like the air you breathe! That masses of unarmed black men are being hunted down on the streets by police is a patent lie. Even that rabid pro-Trump rag the Washington Post’s data will confirm this. Who is the conspiracy theorist? Just admit that you are a Marxist who hates America and yourself. Trump being a lunatic detached from reality does not preclude the likes of you and UA-TDS from being the same.
Your racist president is a racist, just like his racist followers
Ironic that you paint the Left as “hating America” when it’s the racist, conspiracy fueled Extreme Right that just violently stormed the US Capitol and committed insurrection. Talk about traitors.
Stay Proud, Boy.
While I don’t go in for the “massive fraud” claims, the electoral process in Pennsylvania was clearly unconstitutional. What does that have to do with racism?
As for hating America, have you actually read what BLM and the 1619 Project stand for? Do you understand what Marxism is? That some of Trump’s supporters are racist doesn’t make him a racist nor their concerns rooted in racism. What makes Trump a racist? Because he isn’t Obama? Because he thinks we shouldn’t have porous borders? Anyway, aren’t all white folx racist according to critical race theory?
I have no problem admitting that racism exists, but government can’t legislate away private prejudices and it is not what most ails black America. The Great Society, signed into law by that great lover of Black folx, Lyndon Johnson, destroyed the developing black middle class and we are paying the price for it decades later. Since you figured out that you were for Biden and not Trump, I guess you is black!
Of course, UA-TDS never addresses the facts I bring up. Out of about 7,300 black homicide victims a year, perhaps 15 or so are unarmed victims of police shootings. Who are the killers of the thousands of others? It must be systemic racism.
Stuart,
So those cops got together before their shift that day in Minneapolis and made a pact to go out and kill a black guy just for sport? Floyd had enough narcotics in his system to kill a horse and wss in the middle of cardiac arrest. He was a real nice guy too I’m told. He won Inmate Of The Week twice while he was in prison in Texas for armed home invasion and sticking a gun in a pregnant woman’s stomach.
So IF you get pulled over for a DUI and the cop puts his knee on your neck and essentially cuts off your breathing and you die, you accept that? Because you were under the influence? Dude, really, White privilege on display. Because the cop would never do that to you under the same circumstances. He might even wink and tell you to get home safely and go slow.
And a perfect example was the difference in police response to BLM vs Trump Deplorables.
You’re right, it won’t happen to me because I don’t drive drunk, use drugs pass phony currency or resist arrest. Now on to the police response: I thought you don’t ont want the police to arrest mace and act with aggression?….Actually you don’t want police at all.. Are you saying that they SHOULD have beat people up or killed them?….Well actually, they killed one and a bonus for you, she was white AND a Trump supporter. What number of people killed would have satisfied you?….oh, she was unarmed too, does that make a difference though?
Obesity isn’t contagious. Make sense now?
I have lots of respect for Matthew but the equivalence between storming the capitol building and the summer protests is absurd. Granted, not all of the protests over the summer were peaceful, but a majority of them were and there was an actual cause (racial justice) to be fought for. Compare that to ‘stop the steal’. That’s not a cause. And at some point it’s less patronizing to tell people they are wrong than to indulge their total delusions.
As a retired UA employee, thanks to management for saying something, and abusing flight crews and other pax over masks on, as unfortunately many Q types and Trump fans do, is a danger to public safety, and health,,,,the feds need to enforce interfering with a flight crew statues again, and treat these idiots to fun times in a fed lockup!
Q Anon is a mental illness, plain and simple
Jetset,
I thought we were abolishing prisons…and the police…..and rent….and taxes….
It’s okay, it was ONLY property damage right?…..and they have insurance right?
I think it wise of United not label the “…large group of protestors and rioters…” From my perspective, all the labeling across the entire spectrum further promotes closed-fist defensiveness and divisiveness. I’m not saying sugarcoat and/or let things slide…definitely callout wrongs and address them, but in an emotionally-intelligent, constructive way.
why not condemn themselves for ripping off their employees of all their stocksd after 911 while giving ceo.s and executives big raises.united are a joke compared to what they used to be.they used to represent american greatness,now just another advocate for diversity brainwasahing.