Bemidji concrete company, airline in Thief River Falls to pay $45K for ‘blatant’ sex discrimination

A concrete company in Bemidji fired an employee and told her to find “women’s work,” and a regional airline operating in Thief River Falls refused to hire a man as a flight attendant.

Now each company will pay $45,000 over alleged sex discrimination, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights announced Thursday.

The companies reached settlement agreements with the state while also agreeing to change policies to avoid further violating Minnesota’s civil rights law. Rebecca Lucero, commissioner of the state’s Department of Human Rights, said in a statement that both cases involve “blatant workplace sex discrimination.”

“We’ve worked hard to eliminate the notion that certain jobs ought to be performed by a woman or a man. Yet, these two cases demonstrate that there is still work left to do,” Lucero said.

When firing the woman, Lakes Concrete Plus in Bemidji told her that driving a concrete truck was not “women’s work,” according to findings from an investigation by the department.

A similar investigation into Key Lime Air, based in Colorado and operating at the Thief River Falls Regional Airport, found that the company refused to hire the man because the company believed women are “better” as flight attendants.

The Department of Human Rights reports that 22% of Minnesotans who file charges with the department allege sex discrimination.

The woman filed the complaint in August 2022, claiming that her supervisor told her she should find a job that was more “fitting” after terminating her as a concrete mixing truck driver.

The company denied discrimination and claimed that she lacked the skills, that she wore inappropriate clothing to work and that there wasn’t enough work to keep her employed.

Owners also asserted that it terminated her employment by mutual agreement, but the investigation did not find credible evidence to show it was mutual. In fact, she called the company’s human resources office upon firing to say she was discharged involuntarily.

The woman has a class A commercial driver’s license and had driven other big trucks, the investigation found. And a man hired the same time as she was, with similar work experience, was retained; she was fired after two days.

Lakes Concrete did not respond to requests for comment.

Key Lime, which operates both cargo and passenger flight services from Thief River Falls, hired the man as an agent in 2022 but he later applied to fill a standby flight attendant position.

He emailed the human resources director asking if they “would consider relaxing its ‘females-only’ staffing policy for cabin crew,” adding that he had experience working as a flight attendant for different airlines.

The director replied, “I don’t believe they will allow you …” and never responded again. The man was terminated in April 2023.

Key Lime admitted that it had never hired a man as a flight attendant. Between Jan. 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2024, it employed 45 flight attendants, all of them women.

Key Lime said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune that it “reached an amicable resolution with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.”