Racist Email Crashes Pilot’s Career
It is trite but true to say that the truth often comes out in jest. It also often comes out when under the influence of alcohol. The consequences can be life-changing.
Donald had been an airline pilot for 17 years when he landed one night in Fredericton.
His union had it as a term of the collective agreement that pilots could only be put in hotels in the centre of the city that were pre-approved by the union. On this day in April, every hotel room in the downtown was sold.
Donald was sent to a hotel on the outskirts and he was not happy. From 9 p.m. until after 11 p.m., Donald was sending emails to the crew travel department, its supervisor, scheduling, the director of line operations and the vice-president of line operations.
He was angry about the lack of food choices out in the industrial zone where he was staying and wanted transportation into the city centre and back. The company refused but said it would arrange for food delivery if he said what he wanted. Donald went silent for a couple of hours and it is likely that some drinking occurred.
At 1:06 a.m., he wrote an email to all the people in his increasingly large email chain, including his boss. His boss was a Black man. The email said “Can I get a large bucket of fried chicken, with slices of watermelon and a six-pack of non-alcoholic Bud light beer for me and my friends?”
The next day, he was suspended with pay while the matter was investigated.
Apparently, Donald sobered up and realized he had shown the world who he really was but decided not to fess up. He wrote a letter to human resources stating he was unaware of the stigma associated with the meal request.
He did not intend to insult or harass his boss. He indicated he had now done some reading and learned about Black history and the topic of ethnic foods and their associated stigma. He apologized for the “misunderstanding.” He wrote, “My interest that night was to access the local amenities and restaurants as detailed in our collective agreement. Nothing more nothing less. The local grocery for beer and watermelon and Mary Brown’s for a bucket of chicken.”
Donald was eventually terminated for his racist behaviour and the breach of the company’s code of conduct and he grieved the termination.
At the arbitration, Donald stuck with his story that he did not know he was being racist. The arbitrator didn’t buy it. It was a problem that the racist email didn’t go out until five hours after Donald said he wanted to go into town for food.
He did not follow up on his requested food order because obviously he was never expecting a response to his insult. When challenged on this, Donald said he eventually gave up and got a friend (in the middle of the night) to pick up some food for him.
This “friend” was never called as a witness. If the friend had given evidence she had picked up similar food for Donald that would have changed everything. I doubt she existed.
The adjudicator found that Donald was upset because he did not think he was being treated as he deserved and he struck out at his boss with a racist trope in a childish attempt to insult him. That email went to many people in the email chain throughout the management structure.
Before the adjudicator dismissed Donald’s grievance and upheld his termination without pay, they noted Donald’s refusal to truly apologize and admit what he did was problematic. That, added to the original behaviour, persuaded the arbitrator that the employer was justified in its termination.
This article was originally published by The Hamilton Spectator.
