DataLine first met American Airlines several years ago through one of the company's most effective ambassadors and head of its Minority Vendor Development Program, Don McQuilkin. McQuilkin enthusiastically embraces his job, and is pretty good at it, judging by the company's purchasing record.
From McQuilkin, we learned that American Airlines has more women in higher places than their competitors, and it has women in power in non-traditional areas: in addition to the woman who is Vice President of Personnel, the Vice President of Corporate Real Estate is a woman, as is the President of the SABER Travel Network, a subsidiary. Also, Anne McNamara is Senior Vice President of Administration and General Counsel.
The jury in New York also heard about this, and other accomplishments in equal employment opportunity, in Barbara Sogg's lawsuit against the Airline. Yet they still brought back a judgment that included $4.5 million in compensatory damages, and $2.5 million in punitive damages. The CEO, Robert Crandall, and three other executives, including Sogg's Supervisor, were found to be personally liable for specific portions of the punitive damages. No one at American Airlines would discuss this case, or anything about women and minorities at American Airlines, because they have already announced they intend to appeal the verdict. The trial was long: two months. Sogg's attorney, Lester Tanner, described her long history with the airline. She started as a stewardess in 1958 and resigned in 1963, as policy compelled any stewardess who married to do. Sogg then took a "ground job" as a secretary, and rose quickly. Over the next fifteen years, she was promoted seven times.
In 1978, Sogg passed American Airline's Leadership Assessment Program (with "high marks" according to Tanner), and she was made Manager of Flight Services at La Guardia Airport. She had over 1,000 employees under her.
In May, 1979, Sogg had a valve implanted in her heart, and although she was deemed to have recovered fully, her personnel records showed that she was never again rated "promotable" in the Airline's annual management tracking process. In 1984, when the job of General Manager of American Airlines operations at La Guardia became open, Sogg was not considered as a candidate for the position. She had been Acting General Manager for six years, whenever the General Manager was away, and according to company testimony, had done a good job.
According to testimony, the man American Airlines appointed as General Manager had less supervisory experience than Sogg (four years to her ten), and he had performed so poorly on the company Leadership Assessment Program that he had requested that the Personnel Department expunge the fact of his participation from his file. One of his acts as General Manager was to fire Barbara Sogg.
According to New York attorney Alison Wetherfield, who followed the trial closely, the jury appeared to react negatively to the company's claims that they have done much better by women since 1985. Attorney Tanner claims he was totally successful at preventing the company from using their success at promoting women in other areas as a defense. "They brought in beautiful documents," Tanner says, "they had paper all over the place -- the point is, they ignored it. They didn't apply it to Barbara Sogg."
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