A ‘pro-life’ Southwest Airlines flight attendant who sued the Dallas-based carrier for religious discrimination after she was fired for allegedly harassing some of her coworkers with abortion-themed messages on Facebook has just landed a $1 million payday after nine years of litigation.
Charlene Carter sued Southwest and the TWU556 flight attendant union in 2017, accusing the two parties of violating the Civil Rights Act, as well as the Railway Labor Act (which also governs many aviation workers).
Carter had been accused of sending ‘extremely graphic’ photos via Facebook of aborted fetuses to other crew members without their consent. Southwest accused Carter of workplace bullying and terminated her following a short investigation.
In her defense, Carter said she sent the messages to leaders of the TWU556 after the union used membership fees to send representatives to the Women’s March 2017 in Washington, D.C., where marchers campaigned for abortion rights.
Carter said she sent the messages because she was opposed to the union adopting a pro-abortion policy. She claimed in court that her actions were protected as a sincerely held religious belief.
In 2022, a Texas jury sided with Carter and ordered Southwest and the TWU556 union to pay her more than $5 milion in compensation.
On appeal, the award was reduced to less than $1 million. However, it wasn’t until this week that court documents were filed to confirm that Carter had received the payout, totaling $946,102.87.
“Being a flight attendant is my livelihood and my passion, and union officials tried to manipulate company policy to upend my career simply because I spoke out about my most sincerely held beliefs,” commented Carter.
“This case has been a long, hard fight, but I’ll never stop sticking up for what I know is right, and I hope that both my employer and TWU union bosses have learned that it doesn’t pay to stifle flight attendants’ freedom of religion and speech,” Carter continued.
The legal fight is not, however, completely over.
Following the initial verdict, the district court judge in the case ordered Southwest Airlines to send a copy of the verdict and judgment to its entire flight attendant workgroup, along with a statement that the airline may not discriminate based on religion.
Southwest’s interpretation of this order was to send an email to flight attendants, saying that a Dallas court had “ordered us to inform you that Southwest does not discriminate against our employees for their religious practices and beliefs.”
The airline also told its flight attendants that it was “extremely disappointed” with the judgment and that the messages that Carter sent to her colleagues were “inappropriate, harassing, and offensive”.
Carter asked the court to find Southwest in contempt, and the same judge then ordered three of Southwest’s attorneys in the case to attend religious liberty training from a conservative Christian advocacy group that opposes LGBTQ rights and lobbies government organizations to make abortion illegal.
The attorneys have never attended the training after an appeals court found that the judge overstepped his powers.
Carter and her legal representatives from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation continue to fight in the District Court for Southwest to be found in contempt.
Southwest was forced to rehire Carter following the initial verdict, and she continues to work for the airline. However, her attorneys have called out the fact that she is still required to pay membership fees to the TWU556 union as a condition of her employment.
“It is outrageous that, even though the court confirmed that the TWU union and Southwest violated Carter’s legal rights, Carter to this day is still forced to subsidize TWU union bosses or else be fired by Southwest,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix.
“We hope Carter’s case will prompt a long-overdue conversation about how coercive union boss power infringes on the rights of millions of hardworking Americans,” Mix added.
Southwest Airlines declined to comment on the latest developments.
