United Airlines Diverse Hiring Plans Slammed As ‘Sick’ By Conservatives

United Airlines announced plans to expand their hiring and training programs to allow more women and BIPOC candidates to become pilots for their airlines, but the move was quickly slammed by conservatives on social media who accused the company of being reckless in the name of politically correct behavior.

In a press release Tuesday, the company announced they would be planning on 50% of the 5,000 pilots they trained over the next decade to be women or people of color, stating that with the help of JPMorgan Chase, they would “eliminate the financial barrier to entry for highly qualified and motivated candidates.”

The company announced that they would be doing this by offering $2.4 million in financial aid to candidates who were qualified, with the goal of allowing those who don’t traditionally have access to lucrative careers such as becoming pilots to then receive that same access and chance.

However, the news was swiftly decried online on Wednesday, with many conservatives attacking the announcement and stating that by focusing on diversity, United was actually putting customers’ lives at risk, because they would be favoring less qualified candidates solely because of their sex and/or skin color.

Others also quickly pointed out that the full release clearly stated they were planning to increase the diversity pool in their training program, meaning that while more students may be female or non-white, it didn’t mean that they would be the only ones to graduate from the program and get jobs, and United was simply trying to even the playing field for all groups of people who wanted to fly.

United has not responded to the backlash.

Their plans to increase diversity in their training program also come on the heels of the company releasing a statement about Georgia’s new voting laws, joining several other companies and organizations which have since released statements or made moves against the state for enacting them.

Companies speaking out against the new laws also led to former President Donald Trump, who still maintains the election was stolen from him despite his claims being consistently thrown out by the courts, releasing a statement telling conservatives to start boycotting companies that were against the new legislation.

“Boycott all the woke companies that don’t want voter I.D. and free and fair elections,” he said.

He had previously called out companies as well and named a few for his followers to boycott.

“It is finally time for republicans and Conservatives to fight back—we have more people than they do—by far! Boycott Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, ViacomCBS, Citigroup, Cisco, UPS and Merck,” he said.