United Airlines allowed racism and harassment of employees of color to fester unchecked at Denver International Airport, according to a Black employee who says he was fired for speaking up.
Amir Brown, 31, says a white supervisor dubbed “Fast Eddie” ordered a Black staffer to “go fetch” a noose – but alleges United attempted to sweep the incident under the rug rather than investigate and take action, claims a federal lawsuit obtained by The Independent.
After Fast Eddie was reported to higher-ups by a white manager, he was finally fired, along with another white employee who allegedly yelled the n-word while at work, Brown’s complaint states. However, according to the complaint, in the period that followed, “United concealed the incident instead of addressing the underlying cultural issues that had allowed the racist conduct to escalate”.
From there, the complaint says Brown “observed the workplace environment… become increasingly segregated and hostile for employees of color.”
Brown, who was part of a team that moved aircraft around the tarmac at Denver International Airport (DIA), claims he was subjected to ongoing bigotry over the course of nearly two years, being ostracized, belittled, and undermined by white coworkers who eventually got him terminated.
The harassment was “frequent and notorious in nature,” and Brown brought his grievances to United on “multiple occasions,” according to the complaint. Yet, it contends, the airline “failed to take prompt or effective action to prevent, correct, or remedy the work environment that was hostile for Mr. Brown.”
The others were apparently “upset that [he] was working too much overtime and therefore earning more than them,” according to Brown’s complaint.
On Monday, attorney Genevieve Mesch, a member of Brown’s legal team, accused United of “turn[ing] a blind eye to anti-Black racism.”
“Black employees also face harsher discipline than their non-Black counterparts,” Mesch told The Independent. “Despite United being made aware of these incidents, the company has not implemented effective measures to address the culture of discrimination. This case represents one of several similar complaints filed by Denver-based United employees, showing a broader pattern of unaddressed racial discrimination.”
Brown’s lawsuit, Mesch said, “seeks accountability and meaningful change to ensure all United employees can work in an environment free from racial harassment and disparate treatment.”
In an email, a United spokesperson said, “United fosters an environment of inclusion and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We remain committed to protecting individuals who raise workplace concerns in good faith. As this is an ongoing legal matter, we have no further comment at this time.”
Brown began working for United in March 2017 as a ramp service worker at Newark Liberty International Airport. In October 2020, he was promoted to ramp agent and transferred to Denver International Airport, and in January 2023, was selected for a “speciality position” on the Aircraft Move Team, which repositions planes on the tarmac.
“Throughout his tenure with United, Mr. Brown was consistently recognized for his excellent performance and diligence,” Brown’s complaint states. “Mr. Brown was incredibly hardworking and dependable—frequently working between 70 to 100 hours a week, picking up overtime shifts, and often working 16-hour days back-to-back.”
After hiring on in Denver, Brown began to experience a “work environment and culture that enabled racism towards Black employees,” the complaint goes on. In the months following the November 2020 noose incident, it says things got steadily worse.
In October 2022, Brown requested parental leave so he could bond with his newborn daughter, but, according to the complaint, he was told that “only mothers or management were eligible for bonding time.” Instead, Brown would have to use his allotted 12 days of unpaid leave, and draw on his sick days if he wanted any additional time off, the complaint states.
Brown soon discovered that a white male coworker who was not in management had been approved to take paid leave for bonding time with his baby daughter, according to the complaint.
The “discriminatory treatment that Mr. Brown was experiencing” only intensified when he was promoted to the Aircraft Move Team in January 2023, the complaint maintains.
Brown was one of two people of color on the Aircraft Move Team at DIA, where, his complaint alleges, white colleagues refused to acknowledge him or say hello, and arranged things in the break room so Brown would be forced to sit by himself, away from the others. Brown claims the white Move Team members “refused to partner with [him] on assignments,” and left him to work alone in the hangar, which was against United rules and a potential safety hazard, according to the complaint.
“Mr. Brown’s supervisors observed this behavior and took no action to prevent his segregation and exclusion,” the complaint states.
Meanwhile, a group of white Move Team employees started submitting “false reports” to their supervisor about Brown’s performance, claiming he was breaking the rules by using his cell phone while on the clock, according to the complaint. It says Brown’s boss confronted him numerous times about the accusations, and Brown continually tried to explain that “the reports were untrue and… that there was no evidence to support the claims.”
After speaking with his union rep about the situation, Brown was informed that his Move Team coworkers were “upset that [he] was working too much overtime and therefore earning more than them,” the complaint asserts. Conversely, it says, no one on the Move Team expressed similar feelings about non-Black employees who were high overtime earners.
“This situation was incredibly distressing and isolating for Mr. Brown and was calculated to make his working conditions so intolerable that he’d quit,” the complaint states.
At a crossroads, Brown decided to start spending his off-time in the locker room rather than in the break room, according to the complaint. But, the complaint alleges, a white employee on the team told management he was “uncomfortable” with Brown sitting near his locker, which the complaint claims was in fact “based on having a Black man near their locker, not just having an employee near their locker.”
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From there, Brown found himself targeted by white colleagues in various other ways, being berated and sworn at on the airfield, getting criticized on the radio, and being set up to fail by way of bogus violations for minuscule offenses – such as not being in the break room when a supervisor went looking for him – that did not result in any penalties for non-Black workers who committed similar infractions, the complaint alleges.
In addition, Brown says he was denied leave to tend to a broken nose, penalized for an “unexcused absence” when he was sent to the hospital during his shift for issues related to his injuries, and written up for speeding while driving to the hangar, resulting in a verbal termination warning, according to the complaint. This, Brown’s complaint says, was “disproportionate compared to how other employees were disciplined by United.”
Brown told management again and again that he was the victim of racism, but was met with complete inaction, according to the complaint.
“After this termination warning, United manufactured additional attendance violations in order to justify Mr. Brown’s termination,” the complaint states.
On November 28, 2024, Brown was fired for violating United’s attendance policy, according to the complaint, which says the carrier “manufactured additional attendance violations in order to justify Mr. Brown’s termination.”
“As a result of his termination, Mr. Brown suffered and continues to suffer substantial injuries and damages, including lost wages and emotional distress and mental anguish,” his complaint states.
In January, United agreed to pay $99,000 to a Mongolian-born employee based in Denver who was peppered with racial slurs and physically assaulted by a supervisor, who also threatened his job over bogus violations. In 2022, the airline settled a religious discrimination lawsuit, filed by a Buddhist pilot, for more than $300,000. In March, a Mexican-American United employee with more than 37 years of service sued the carrier over allegations she was subjected to “relentless” workplace sexism and racism at San Francisco International Airport.
Brown is now seeking economic damages, compensatory damages, and punitive damages for “intentional discrimination… done with malice or reckless indifference to [his] federally protected rights,” to be determined by a jury, as well as attorney’s fees and court costs.
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