The poster targets people of North African origin, comparing them to animals and invoking stereotypes of the 'lazy savage' as well as the stereotype that migrants come to Europe in order to benefit from welfare services. The poster ends by suggesting the reader share the message in order to continue "the clean planet operation."
The shockingly racist abuse was written on a computer, printed out and pasted onto offices within the LuxairCARGO group. The flagrant racism shocked both employees and the management of the group, the latter of which responded to the incident with an internal message on 24 January.
According to the message signed by two representatives of LuxairCARGO and the group's delegation president, the group has submitted a complaint to the police in order to find the individual(s) responsible for the racist behaviour.
After 5minutes contacted Luxair's communication chief Joe Schroeder for further information, the chief confirmed that the racist poster had appeared in their offices and stressed that "such messages are unacceptable." Following on from that, the communications chief highlighted that the individual responsible for the hate speech is not welcome within the group. However, the group has yet to discover who is behind the posters.
As for the timeline of the events, Schroeder explained that an employee discovered the poster late at night on 18 January and immediately informed their superiors. Six days later, the group circulated a reaction, as seen in the image below.
He went on to reiterate that the official document circulated to all the employees based at the Cargocenter summarises the group's approach and ethos. Schroeder said: "Our diversity and synergy is at the heart of our business's strength and prosperity."
He believes this is an isolated case, explaining that there have never been any similar situations beforehand. As a result, Schroeder is confident that this is not a systematic issue within the offices of LuxairCARGO.
Going into detail, he went on to say: "Unfortunately, these types of situations can occur, as the incident shows, but we will not accept it. Once the author of the message has been identified, he or she will face the consequences. Such an action reflects in no way our values and will lead to an immediate and irrevocable end to our work with this individual."
As a result, it is clear that the author of the message is risking both being fired and legal consequences for their racist poster.
