January 22.1999 Ju st
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news
O
n Dec. 14, the Human Rights
Campaign joined Equal Benefits
Advocates, the group that ini
tially called for a boycott of Unit
ed Airlines because of the com
pany’s ongoing opposition to a San Francisco
ordinance requiring companies doing business
with the city to offer employees’ domestic part
ners the same benefits offered to married spous
es.
HRC, a national gay and lesbian political
organization based in Washington, D.C., joined
a delicately worded boycott against United, the
world’s largest air carrier, because the organiza
tion “could not think of an alternative approach
that would be effective” in changing the airline’s
policy, says H R C ’s executive director, Elizabeth
Birch.
United and the Air Transport Association,
an airline trade group that represents many
major airlines, have been fighting for two years
against a San Francisco ordi
nance that requires companies
holding contracts with the city
to provide the same benefits to
gay or straight domestic partners
that are offered to married part
ners.
A number of companies,
including BankAmerica and
Chevron, have complied with
the law, but United has not.
United officials say the law cre
ates an economic burden on the
company and is not within the
scope of the city’s power, since
federal laws should govern air
lines.
“For a company of 92,000
people, any change to our agreed
benefits is going to take a pretty
major upheaval for everybody,”
maintains United spokesperson Andy Plews.
“We have been resisting really on a point of
principle. We cannot have policies dictated by
local authorities. We have always contended
that airlines should be federally governed.”
A federal judge last April ruled that airlines
operating in the city were not required to pro
vide domestic partner benefits. In October, the
same judge said United did not have to provide
nonhealth benefits, including bereavement
leave, until a full hearing could be held in early
1999.
The call for a boycott was specifically
prompted by these recent efforts by United to
avoid providing equal bereavement leave.
“The way in which United is handling the
San Francisco ordinance lacks dignity and lacks
fairness for their gay and lesbian employees,”
Birch says. “O f the hundreds of companies that
B olstering a B oycott
National gay and lesbian group joins others
taking a stand against United Airlines by Gip Plaster
I’ve seen grapple with this issue, they are doing
it the least humanely.”
She adds the company should agree to follow
the ordinance, grant domestic partner and relat
ed benefits to all its employees, then argue juris
dictional issues in court.
She says all companies should be offering the
benefits regardless of whether laws require them,
and characterizes United’s tactics as cowardly.
“N o matter what principle they want to test
in court, they need to examine their policies,"
she says.
A recent H RC media statement announcing
“Neither United Airlines nor the ATA was
involved in any aspect of the [ACLJ] suit, or in
any effort to consolidate or relate the cases,” says
a United press statement. “(The ATA case] has
been largely decided in favor of the airlines by
Judge Claudia Wilkins. The issues in the [ACLJ]
suit, however, have yet to be heard by the
court.”
Spokespersons for the ATA, which repre
sents 22 airlines, also decried the boycott.
“The airlines’ position in this matter has
always been to protect their rights to conduct
business according to federal law and avoid a
that the group had joined the boycott attempts
to draw a link between United and the Ameri
can Center for Law and Justice, an organization
created by conservative Christian television
commentator Pat Robertson that has mounted
its own case against the San Francisco ordi
nance.
“If there was any doubt as to where United
stood on gay and lesbian equality, this was clari
fied when they elected to form a partnership
with one of the most rabid anti-gay organiza
tions in America," Birch says in the release. “In
essence, United has joined forces with Pat
Robertson to promote the unfair treatment of
gay Americans.”
United officials say the case involving Unit
ed and the ATA was filed several months before
the ACLJ case and is being heard before the
same judge because court rules require it.
patchwork quilt of inconsistent local regulation
of what is fundamentally an interstate industry,”
according to an ATA statement. “The airlines
maintain that the appropriate forum for address
ing the domestic partners benefits issue is in dis
cussions and negotiations between individual
companies and their employees.”
Birch says she could not provide any evi
dence that United and the ACLJ had worked
together, but adds the airline should be alarmed
to find itself fighting on the same side of the
issue as Pat Robertson.
“That doesn’t even prompt them to take a
deep look into their internal actions,” she says.
The boycott leaves rcxim for consumer dis
cretion and does not call for a complete boycott
of all flights by United. Birch says the wording
was decided upon by Equal Benefits Advocates.
The group is composed of the three people
who "conceived, drafted and lobbied through
the equal benefits ordinance,” explains Jeff She-
hee, one of the members.
The boycott says that “where customers have
a choice (and choice may be driven by price, use
of frequent flyer points or availability of other
flights), customers should try to fly another air
line.”
It states that if a choice does not exist, "Equal
Benefits Advocates requests the customer take
the opportunity to educate United and the pub
lic by wearing a button or sticker expressing
their support of the boycott.”
If United withdraws its lawsuit, the boycott
will end, according to the wording established
by the group.
While United does not provide all the bene
fits it could for its employees, the company does
donate money and services to a number of gay
and lesbian causes and groups, including the
International Gay Rodeo Association. The boy
cott does not offer instructions
or advice to these organizations
that now find themselves
accepting money from a com
pany that another gay and les
bian organization is boy
cotting.
“I think each group has to
make its own decision,” Birch
says. “We would not begin to
instruct another gay group."
While she does not make a
recommendation
about
whether other groups should
refuse money from United,
Birch does call on other groups
to consider joining the original
boycott by Equal Benefits
Advocates.
“They should get informa
tion from the San Francisco
group and make a decision if they want to sup
port their efforts as we did,” she says.
Birch notes that H RC has never accepted
money from United, nor does it accept money
from other controversial companies, including
alcohol and tobacco companies.
United with Pride, the nonprofit gay and les
bian employees group at United, has not taken
a position regarding the boycott.
"United with Pride neither supports nor does
not support the boycott. Our position is to take
neither side,” says Nick Morse, the group’s exec
utive director.
Morse adds that he "questions the benefit of
a boycott” and believes education of employees
and the management at United is needed.
“The employees here need education more
than pushing,” he says.
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