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Laid off United pilot says airline 'wanted to have its cake and eat it too' - YouTube
Channel: Fox Business
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all right we're going to switch gears
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for a moment because there is one United
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Airlines pilot who says that she's
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blocked from finding a job or accessing
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her 401K for refusing to get the
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covid-19 vaccine joining me now is
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United Airlines pilot and co-founder of
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Airline employees for health Freedom
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Sherry Walker Sherry I'm so glad that
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you're joining us today let's go ahead
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first by asking you just to sort of
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briefly outline and describe your
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experience the pushback you received and
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where you are right now
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hi Jackie and thank you yes myself and
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two co-founders are leading 2 000 plus
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United employees in a lawsuit against
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our company for violations of Title VII
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we asked for reasonable accommodations
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in lieu of the covid vaccine and we were
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similarly denied and put on indefinite
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unpaid leave we filed a lawsuit in the
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fifth circuit and right now we have
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appealed the preliminary injunction and
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are waiting from ruling in the fifth uh
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down in New Orleans talk to me a little
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bit about the hardship that you have
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faced as a result of this I mean this is
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a lengthy process to go through the
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system here and and figure it out but
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you know you're a human being and we're
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talking about not getting a paycheck
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here we're talking about not being able
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to have health benefits these are real
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issues
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sure after the temporary restraining
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order was lifted approximately well
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slightly over a thousand of our pilots
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and flight attendants were put on
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indefinite unpaid leave we lost all
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medical benefits so now I'm paying five
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to six times more at Cobra rates we've
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been told at first we could not get
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outside employment then an international
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wide body captain at 55 years old was
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told I could go back and throw bags for
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12 an hour starting at the bottom and
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then those who did apply for those jobs
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and the computer system automatically
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kicked back a you're not vaccinated you
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don't qualify for the job so some folks
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try to apply for outside employment they
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were told that we have no compete
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Clauses and now they've tried to access
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their Savings in their 401k and those
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that are under 59 and a half like myself
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do not have access to that money so it
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all stems from the fact that United
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wanted to have its cake and eat it too
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it wanted to keep us as active employees
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which means that at any time with the
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two weeks notice we could be called back
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versus inactive which then would have
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triggered furlough protections allowed
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us to gain employment but would have put
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the other pilots and a flight attendant
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restrictions so that they couldn't pick
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up overtime yeah that's that's
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interesting they're they're holding all
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the strings they're making it convenient
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so they could bring you back if they
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need to but you're stuck in this
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difficult position let me ask you a
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rather personal question which
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essentially is throughout this process
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it might have just been easier as a
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result of what you were facing to go get
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the jab right did you ever consider that
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and and how did you weigh uh the
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benefits and the risks there
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no I never considered it my faith is
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such that I'm strong and will be fine
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and if it means it's career change
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that'll be fine too I believe Judge
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James C ho in his descent pointed out
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the um critical nature of a crisis of
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conscience no person should be faced to
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choose between feeding their family and
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their faith in their God you're right um
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good for you that's incredible resolve
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but let me just ask you this in the
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final moments that we have we're also
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dealing with a labor shortage around the
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country and so these vaccine mandates
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have become a huge issue and we saw so
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many disruptions within the airlines as
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well but the airline said oh no no it
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has nothing to do with the mandates
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that's not what happened here your
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thoughts
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um I find that really interesting
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because right now we knew in advance of
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of the Christmas rush they had already
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put out memos that would be short
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omicrom has raged at the company and we
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have some One Pilot even due to the um
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uh overtime afforded 180
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000 paycheck for the month of January
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we've got people out here starving the
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company's paying three to three and a
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half times
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um uh over time and that can't be good
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for the shareholders no Sherry thank you
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so much for coming on today I just want
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to say we did reach out to United
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Airlines for comments and they said they
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have nothing to share at this time we'll
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be right back
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thank you
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