Ted Cruz SLAMS United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby for Their Poor Handling of Vax Mandates
In his line of questioning, Sen. Cruz said:
“As a number of senators have observed last year, what Congress did with regard to the aviation industry was critica…
Ted Cruz SLAMS United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby for Their Poor Handling of Vax Mandates
In his line of questioning, Sen. Cruz said:
“As a number of senators have observed last year, what Congress did with regard to the aviation industry was critical. It was unprecedented. We allocated over $54 billion to keep the American aviation industry strong and healthy. I was the chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee at the time, each of the CEOs on this panel and Ms. Nelson, I’ve spoken to all of you many times, each of you in great length, making the case that maintaining our pilots, maintaining our flight attendants, maintaining our personnel and aviation was critically important. We fast forward to where we are today, and we find ourselves in a different circumstance, and the behavior of airlines has not been uniform. I’m proud to say the two airlines based in Texas, Mr. Kelly’s airline and Mr. Parker’s airline, I think had been exemplary, particularly concerning vaccine mandates, both of you have made public commitments that you will not be firing your employees because of failure to comply with the vaccine mandate. I thank you for that. Mr. Bastian has likewise made that commitment at Delta. The outlier here is United. Mr. Kirby, United’s behavior on this issue, I have to say, has been deeply disturbing. I’m a frequent customer of United. I live in Houston, I’ve got over a million miles on United. There are over 14,000 United employees in the state of Texas. The way United has treated its employees is in marked contrast to your competitors sitting here. Your competitors have said they will stand with their employees. United has not made that same commitment. How many pilots has United fired because of failure to comply with the vaccine mandate?”
Mr. Kirby replied:
“Well, senator, I’m happy to talk about the rationale for why we did it. We did it for safety.”
Sen. Cruz continued:
“I have limited time, so my question is, how many pilots have you fired?”
Mr. Kirby replied:
“I believe it is six out of 13,000.”
Sen. Cruz asked:
“How many pilots have you placed on unpaid leave?”
Mr. Kirby replied:
“I think it’s about 80.”
Sen. Cruz asked:
“Okay, how many flight attendants have you fired?”
Mr. Kirby replied:
“I don’t know the number. In total, it’s about 200 employees.”
Sen. Cruz continued:
“Well, I will tell you, I spoke this morning to the Airline Employees for Health Freedom that said they had over 2,000 United employees who had been placed on unpaid leave because they sought exemptions from the vaccine mandates, that said that included 331 pilots. I will also note that I have been literally inundated with United employees complaining about United’s callous disregard for the rights of the pilots. One of the messages was from a pilot who flew for United for more than two decades, who applied for and received an exemption from your vaccine mandate on religious grounds and was subsequently placed on leave with no pay and no benefits, includi
