A federal judge has allowed a counterclaim accusing the largest flight attendant union in the United States of conspiracy to commit computer fraud to proceed following months of legal wrangling in a Utah District Court.
The contentious allegations were made against the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) by a staff association representing crew members at the major regional carrier SkyWest, which provides services to the likes of Alaska Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines.
In October 2023, the AFA sued SkyWest over accusations of serious labor law violations over its funding of the SkyWest Inflight Association, or SIA for short. In response, SIA filed a slew of serious counterclaims against the AFA.
- How Did The Dispute Start In The First Place?
- AFA Accused Of Computer Fraud Conspiracy
- Judge Permits Computer Fraud Conspiracy Counterclaim To Proceed
- Lawsuit Began In October 2023 When Skywest Was Accused Of ‘Extraordinary Violations’ of Labor Law
- Department of Labor Is Also Suing SkyWest’s Flight Attendant Association
- Bottom Line
How Did The Dispute Start In The First Place?
Representing more than 50,000 flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants is by far the largest crew member union in the United States. For years, it has tried but failed to become the official union of around 4,600 flight attendants at the Utah-based regional carrier SkyWest.
SkyWest has funded an independent staff association for its crew members known as the SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA), which has been in existence since 1994.
SIA is the only body allowed to negotiate with SkyWest management over various issues like pay, conditions, and internal policies, although the AFA has questioned SIA’s true independence or ability to negotiate on behalf of SkyWest flight attendants.
A dispute between the AFA, SIA, and SkyWest came to a head in 2023 when the airline sacked two veteran crew members after they exposed what they claimed were serious security flaws with an internal election held by SIA.
AFA Accused Of Computer Fraud Conspiracy
In April 2023, one of the flight attendants who was later terminated discovered that SIA’s supposed secure website could be easily manipulated by changing the URL. This then allowed access to confidential information like crew member names, their ID numbers, and voting credentials for SIA elections.
The crew member shared this information with a coworker and an AFA representative. But rather than also immediately reporting the vulnerability to SIA, the trio allegedly sat on this information, according to SIA.
More than that, SIA claims the three hatched a plan to quietly access the vulnerability each month, and AFA’s agent allegedly instructed one of the crew members to “quietly download” information from the SIA secure website each month, the association claimed.
This continued until August 2023, when the SIA held internal elections. After votes had already been cast, another crew member produced a video explaining the vulnerability, which ultimately led to the ballot being abandoned.
Judge Permits Computer Fraud Conspiracy Counterclaim To Proceed
After the AFA sued SkyWest for terminating the crew members who had exposed the security vulnerability, SIA made a slew of counterclaims against the AFA, including violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
In total, the SIA made eight counterclaims:
- Violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
- Claims under the Stored Communications Act
- Utah Computer Abuse and Data Recovery Act
- Breach of Contract against one of the crew members
- Conversion (civil theft of property)
- Trespass to Chattels
- Civil Conspiracy
- Tortious Interference with Contract
The AFA then moved to have six of these counterclaims dismissed. Earlier this week, District Judge David Barlow made his ruling.
Judge Barlow ruled that many of SIA’s counterclaims should be dismissed, including a standalone civil conspiracy claim.
The judge did, however, allow part of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act counterclaim to proceed – notably that of conspiracy.
Lawsuit Began In October 2023 When Skywest Was Accused Of ‘Extraordinary Violations’ of Labor Law
The AFA filed its suit against SkyWest in October 2023 over what it described as “extraordinary violations” of labor law. The lawsuit almost immediately followed SkyWest’s decision to terminate the two flight attendants who exposed the security vulnerability in SIA’s secure website.
The ongoing lawsuit alleges that Skywest violated the Railway Labor Act in several areas, including funding SIA and terminating Price and Grange without a mechanism for arbitration.
Department of Labor Is Also Suing SkyWest’s Flight Attendant Association
Last August, the Department of Labor filed a seperate lawsuit against SIA over the way it ran its local elections in 2023.
The lawsuit alleged that a former executive officer of SIA and potentially several other members of the association cast ballots for at least 300 members – something that came to light when members went to vote only to find that their ballots had already been cast.
When SIA carried out a rerun of the election, it disqualified two nominees because they had allegedly shown disloyalty to the association over their support for the AFA.
Bottom Line
Although very narrow in its scope, a district judge has ruled that a counterclaim can continue against an AFA agent for alleged computer fraud conspiracy in connection with a secure website used by the SkyWest staff association.
AFA involved in organizing chicanery???
Nooooooooooo……