Southwest Airlines: CEO's Inbox Clutter More Important Than Ending Trafficking

Is it possible a company can really care more about the state of their CEO's inbox than preventing human trafficking? If that company is Southwest Airlines, then yes. After nearly 800 Change.org members asked major U.S. airlines to incorporate human trafficking instruction into its flight-crew training, only one responded — Southwest. And they are more concerned about the cluttered state of CEO Gary C. Kelly’s inbox than human trafficking on their flights.

In a recent email to Change.org, Monica Van Slate of Southwest Airlines' Executive Office/Communications Initiatives responded to over 800 of their customers' messages requesting their company train staff to identify and report human trafficking, with this message:

I’m writing now to respectfully request your help in discouraging any further emails from the petitioners who support this particular cause on change.org.  Our CEO, Gary Kelly, is still receiving several each day.  Given that we’ve engaged in communication on the subject and are firm in our position, we do consider this particular issue closed.

The "communication on the subject" they're referring to was an earlier email saying Southwest was not interested in training their staff to identify human trafficking on their flights. And now they've not only made it clear that the issue of human trafficking is unimportant to their company, it's so unimportant that inbox clutter is a far more pressing issue than their customers' requests for a slavery-free flight.

Airline Ambassadors International (AAI) President Nancy Rivard and Innocents at Risk (IAR) founder Deborah Sigmund have personally witnessed the need for aircrew instruction in human trafficking. IAR has developed the materials needed to educate airline staff in recognizing human trafficking in action and how to handle it. And AAI has pledged to work with any airline that wishes adopt the training. Together, the two groups have made it easy-peasy for any and every airline to help stop human trafficking. It’s like giving Ebenezer Scrooge a free pass to the end of The Christmas Carol. Forget Jacob Marley, the three spirits and the heavy soul-searching, and skip right ahead to the heart of gold.

But hearts of gold are apparently way overrated for Southwest and other U.S. airlines. Most have ignored your messages in support of anti-human trafficking instruction for flight crews. Southwest, while communicative, has remained firm in its position that its current program of non-specific employee training satisfactorily addresses the unique circumstances of human trafficking. Rather than taking modern-day slavery seriously and recognizing it as distinct from, say, terrorism, Southwest’s representatives have been instead focused on keeping their CEO’s email content abolition-free.

Southwest, as well as each of the other airlines, needs to understand how important it is to work with AAI and IAR and develop a training program specific to human trafficking. Tell Southwest, American Airlines, Continental, Delta, Jet Blue and US Airways to join the fight.

Photo credit: jerandsar