Growing up, my least favorite phrase to hear was "the subject is closed." It usually meant that my parents weren't agreeing to something my young heart felt to be absolutely vital, like a pony. In retrospect, some of these denials might have been valid. But Southwest Airlines treating anti-human trafficking advocates like a bunch of children? Unacceptable.Over 800 Change.org members have asked that major airlines include training for flight crew on how to spot human trafficking. When transporting people into a life of slavery — many of them girls and women victims of sex trafficking, a.k.a. transportation for repeated rape — traffickers often opt for the speed and convenience of air travel. But if flight attendants know the typical tale-tell signs of trafficking and how to react, they can make sure that pimps never get their human trade off the ground.
Southwest Airlines' response? "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." Would "this particular cause" be ending human trafficking, enslavement of children, repeated rape-for-pay of girls and women, etc.? "Our CEO, Gary Kelly, is still receiving several each day. Given that we’ve engaged in communication on the subject" -- they said no to training to stop trafficking -- "and are firm in our position, we do consider this particular issue closed." That's right, dig into your bag of patronizing put-downs and tell hundreds of people concerned about trafficking that you've decided out-of-hand that the subject is closed.
As Angela Longerbeam writes on End Human Trafficking, "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." Perhaps Change.org members should let them know that whether or not they think the subject is "closed," slavery will continue to thrive with the aid of their negligence, and we're not going to just sit back while they abdicate responsibility and whine about hearing criticism.
The flight crew training program hundreds are advocating for actually comes from a woman who was herself a flight attendant for 30 years. Nancy Rivard's time as an American Airlines flight attendant inspired her to found Airline Ambassadors International (AAI), which in conjunction with the non-profit Innocents at Risk works to help airlines fight trafficking. They've even gone to the trouble of putting together a handy-dandy training that could that could help flight attendants, like Rivard herself was, to save lives.
All Southwest and the other major airlines need to do to give crews the knowledge they need to thwart traffickers and save innocent men, women, and children is include this program with their regular flight attendant training. It's designed, by someone who know what it's like to be a flight attendant, to slide easily into the standard training. This isn't an arduous request, yet it can put a big dent in modern-day slavery. So why are Southwest and the other major airlines stubbornly unwilling to even discuss, much less taken action against, an issue magnitudes more important than my childhood desire for a pony? With the support of concerned, dedicated opponents of human trafficking, the issue will remain open until the airlines change their policies and implement anti-trafficking training.
Photo credit: Mike Fisher
Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City. Source: change.org
Southwest Airlines Does Ziltch to Stop Human Trafficking, Says Issue Is Closed | Women's Rights | Change.org
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