A Black former worker for an airport-services firm at San Francisco International Airport claims in a lawsuit that a company locker had a sticker on it showing Adolf Hitler and a swastika, and that his supervisor made him dine alone in a dirty-laundry storage area known as “the cage.”
Gentry McCreary’s lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Mateo County Superior Court accused Dubai National Air Travel Agency, which operates worldwide, of racial discrimination and harassment, and the supervisor of racial harassment.
The company said it would not comment on McCreary’s claims, but said it is “strictly against” all forms of racism and discrimination. “We are committed to promoting diversity and ensuring that all employees are treated with respect and dignity,” the company said. “This commitment is reflected in our policies, practices, and daily operations. We take any allegation to the contrary seriously and are dedicated to thoroughly investigating them with diligence and transparency.”
The airport is not named as a defendant or accused of wrongdoing.
Two days after McCreary started working at SFO for the company last month, he noticed the sticker, and had to walk past it nearly every day, the lawsuit claims. A photo of a red, white and black sticker showing Hitler in front of a swastika, next to other stickers on a locked blue locker, is submitted as Exhibit 1 with the lawsuit.Other company employees, including managers, frequently walked past the locker, the lawsuit alleged.
During meal breaks, McCreary initially tried to sit with other company employees, but a supervisor — named as a defendant in the lawsuit but identified only as “Jessica” — told him he should not sit with them and instead must eat by himself in “the cage,” an area at SFO where dirty laundry is stored and a microwave oven is located, the lawsuit claimed.
McCreary was the only Black worker in the department and no other employees were made to eat alone in the cage, the lawsuit alleged.
A little over a week after he started at the company, McCreary “was forced to resign due to the intolerable work environment,” according to the lawsuit. He is seeking unspecified damages.
Airport spokesman Doug Yakel declined to comment on the lawsuit. An SFO non-discrimination policy in its rules and regulations applies to all tenants and contractors at the airport, Yakel said. That policy requires that any complaint that the policy has been violated triggers an immediate and thorough investigation by the airport director. Yakel did not immediately respond to questions about whether the lawsuit represented a complaint that would lead to an investigation.
