Former Southwest Airlines Attendant Successfully Sues Carrier, Union for $5.4 Million Over Abortion Criticism Firing
Jul. 15—A former Southwest Airlines flight attendant has been awarded millions in damages after filing a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines and her former flight attendant union claiming she was wrongfully terminated for messages she sent to union leaders about their participation in a demonstration that in part supported abortion rights.
The Dallas Morning News' Kyle Arnold reported Thursday that a North Texas jury ruled in favor of Charlene Carter in her suit against the Dallas-based airline and Transport Workers Union Local 556, awarding her $5.4 million in back pay and damages for her pain and suffering resulting from her firing from the company in 2017.
A 2019 case opinion featuring court documents stated Carter was fired by Southwest Airlines in March 2017 for violating company policies regarding "social media, harassment and bullying." Carter's lawsuit maintains she was retaliated against by the company after sending emails to TWU Local 556 President Audrey Stone lambasting the union leader for participating in the Women's March in Washington, D.C. in January of that year. In her messages Carter called Stone "truly despicable" and criticized what she claimed to be union leader's politicization of the workplace.
"This is what you supported during your Paid leave with others at the Women's March in D.C." Carter wrote in a Facebook message to Stone, according to court documents. The message in question featured video of an aborted fetus. "You are truly despicable in so many ways," Carter wrote.
Three days after this, Carter responded to an email sent by Stone to Local 556 members with a message expressing her own support for Donald Trump and disdain for union leadership.
"First off I do not want your Propaganda coming in to my mailbox...YOU all DISGUST ME!!! OH and by the WAY I and so many other of our [flight attendants] VOTED FOR TRUMP...so shove that in your Propaganda MACHINE!"
The 2017 Women's March, which took place on January 1 of that year, was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history and occurred in response to the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency in November 2016. The demonstration was supported by a coalition of groups that included Planned Parenthood and other organizations that advocate for women's reproductive rights. Carter's suit alleged Southwest Airlines and the union had "discriminated against her for her religious beliefs" and engaged in violations of labor laws protecting her right to speech advocating against Local 556's participation in the event.
The 2019 case opinion states that Carter became a member of Local 556 in 1996 and remained so until the fall of 2013, at which point she opted to resign and become a "nonmember objector" until the time of her termination in 2017. At the time of her resignation Carter had exercised her right "to object to paying the union's compelled fees because of its political, ideological, and other non-bargaining spending," according to the case opinion. Documents state that in 2013 Carter began publishing "numerous posts in a Facebook group open to all Southwest flight attendants expressing her disagreement with Union leadership and policies."
Carter's suit stated she "is a Christian who believes that abortion is the taking of a human life contrary to the teachings of the Bible and the will of God" and that her "sincere religious beliefs require her to share with others that abortion is the taking of a human life."
As first reported by Arnold, Mark Mix, president of the anti-union group National Right to Work Foundation, issued a statement this week supporting Carter's victory in court.
" Charlene Carter is a committed Christian," Mix stated. "And she strongly believes union officials have no business injecting themselves in policy battles over issues outside the workplace that are fundamental to her faith."
___
(c)2022 the Houston Chronicle
Visit the Houston Chronicle at www.chron.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
