Delta ex-flight attendant files lawsuit alleging retaliation, sexual harassment

A former flight attendant at Delta Air Lines has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging he was fired in retaliation for supporting a unionization effort and for speaking out after enduring “sexually assaultive touching” during training. Aryasp Nejat was fired by Delta in August. In a complaint filed late last month, his attorneys argued he is “one of the latest casualties” of an anti-union campaign waged by the airline. “Delta themselves, through their own policies, encourage an open door policy. They encourage employees to bring up concerns,” Nejat, 24, told the Guardian. “They explicitly say that they don’t tolerate Discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and they want us to engage in constructive dialogue. But then, when I made my comments in protest of their anti-union campaign, in protest of the harassment that I and another flight attendant suffered, the company retaliated against me.” A spokesperson for Delta Air Lines said: “Delta does not tolerate retaliation or harassment of any kind.” Multiple labor unions including the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and the Teamsters, announced a bid two years ago to unionize non-union employees at Delta Airlines. Currently the airline only has a union representing pilots at the company and a union representing dispatchers, unlike other major airlines, where most workers are predominantly union represented. Delta has faced calls from Congress to remain neutral in the face of such campaigns. It has not.<br/>