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American Association of...Young People?
May 25th 10:47:06 AM

There is an interesting narrative about AARP age discrimination in Dale Van Atta’s book, Trust Betrayed: Inside the AARP. AARP prides itself on fighting against age discrimination. On its website it offers examples of age discrimination in the work place, ways to prevent this discrimination, and even has an interactive quiz to test the viewer’s knowledge of age-based prejudice. AARP has jumped at every chance to testify in Congress and engage in lawsuits (e.g., the 3M age discrimination suit of April, 2005). However, if you take a closer look, you will see that AARP is as guilty of age discrimination as any one of the companies against which it so vehemently crusades. In fact, in a discrimination survey conducted of AARP employees, many said they felt prejudiced against based on their age. AARP considers it a duty to speak out against age discrimination in other businesses, but who is there to fight for those employees against whom AARP itself discriminates? Otis Gabriel, an AARP employee who worked as Chief of Employee Relations, filed suit because AARP shifted him from his position into one that took him away from the flow of operations. He claimed that AARP moved him to a position of much less power and importance in part because of his age, despite years of outstanding performance reviews. AARP eventually settled rather than face the intense scrutiny of a court case. Unfortunately, this is hardly an isolated incident. AARP was once run entirely by retirees, but now close to 80 percent of its staff is too young to even qualify for full AARP membership. Van Atta’s book put it best: “They don’t practice what they preach! I suspect AARP operates in spite of its members more than on behalf of them!”

Posted by Zack Stiefler
 

 

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