"PLAN FOR PROGRESS"

Pan Am Joined 50 Industries In Supporting Kennedy Plan 

Johnson, Trippe, and Goldberg signing Pan Am to join John F. Kennedy's Equal Opportunity Employment plan, Spring 1961

Juan Trippe (center) with Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, chairman (left) and Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg, vice-chairman (right) ( Photo: Pan Am Historical Foundation collection).

In 1961, with Juan Trippe at the helm, Pan Am was the only airline, among many American corporations at the time, to support President John F. Kennedy's Commission for Equal Employment Opportunity.  “Pan American intends, to the best of its ability, to follow the President’s policy and has voluntarily embarked on a companywide program to expand and strengthen its efforts to promote equal opportunity, consistent with its long-standing intention to employ the best qualified people available to do its work irrespective of race, creed, color, or national origin.”

Pan American Clipper May 1961 courtesy of University of Miami Special Collections

 Article in the May 1961 "Pan American Clipper," courtesy of University of Miami Special Collections, Pan American World Airways, Inc. records

 

Equal Employment Opportunity

Pan Am Joins 50 Industries In Supporting Kennedy Plan

Pan American, along with approximately 50 other leading American corporations, has lined up solidly behind President Kennedy’s Commission for Equal Employment Opportunity.

Vice President Lyndon E. John- son and President Trippe have signed a joint statement in Washington, D. C. on a “Plan for Progress” which implements a national policy regarding equal employment opportunity during a ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House attended by President Kennedy. Vice President Johnson is chairman of the committee and Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg is the vice chairman. Pan American is the only airline in the select cross-section of American industry to have joined the program.

Joint Statement
The joint statement says, in part:
“Pan American intends, to the best of its ability, to follow the President’s policy and has voluntarily embarked on a companywide program to expand and strengthen its efforts to promote equal opportunity, consistent with its long-standing intention to employ the best qualified people available to do its work irrespective of race, creed, color, or national origin.”

Pan American agreed to review the plan periodically with the President’s committee since “circumstances may prompt amendments to this plan in order to attain the goal of equal employment opportunity more rapidly.”

Plan For Progress:
The Pan American “Plan for Progress” embraces such factors as responsibilities for implementing the policy, recruiting new employees, training them, and the hiring, placement, transfer, promotion, layoff and recall of personnel. Included also is a general statement that “the Company will continue ... to follow the practice of treating all employees alike regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin” with regard to participation in Company-administered activities and maintenance of Company facilities.

The President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, as its part of the bargain, agrees to work with government agencies in recruiting qualified personnel for Pan American and to work with unions and contracting agencies on the Company’s behalf in specific personnel measures. American’s traffic, Mr. Trippe stated. The pilots’ union however has accepted the suggestion of President Kennedy that the issues of the jurisdictional dispute over cockpit assignments be submitted to final and binding arbitration, eliminating the perennial threat of strikes.

 

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