Southwest Fired Flight Attendant After Union Pushed For It — Now She Has Her Job Back And Nearly $1 Million

A flight attendant has her job back, and nearly $1 million, after Southwest Airlines and her union worked together to fire her over her union and religious politics.

Southwest Airlines flight attendant Charlene Carter has just been paid by the airline and the Transport Workers Union. And Southwest has reinstated her, after improperly firing her at the behest of the union.

Carter was a ‘nonmember objector’ who had resigned union membership. She still had to pay some union dues for their representation. But she objected, among other things, to how the union was spending her dues such as its involvement in the 2017 Women’s March and support for abortion – which ran contrary to her religious beliefs.

• She sent the union President private Facebook messages that were graphic about abortion, and publicly criticized the union’s participation in the march. She supported a recall of union officers.

• The union President reported the messages to Southwest as disturbing, obscene, violent, threatening, and harassing – in violation of the airline’s social media rules.

• Southwest fired Carter in March 2017, citing workplace bullying and social media policy violations.

Carter grieved the firing. Southwest offered reinstatement with a 30-day suspension and a last-chance confidential settlement agreement. She sued Southwest and TWU Local 556 for religious discrimination as well as a union duty of fair representation violation.

A jury found for her. The district court awarded reinstatement, backpay, compensatory and punitive damages, interest, and broad injunctive relief. It also later held Southwest in contempt, because it required the airline to notify employees that it may not discriminate and the airline instead says that it “does not discriminate.”

Southwest did win its claim that the evidence failed to prove they fired her because of her religious and pro-life beliefs as such. But the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that her messages and posts about abortion were religious expression, that Southwest had not attempted a religious accommodation rather than firing her, and Southwest wouldn’t have had an undue hardship in accommodating her anti-abortion expression.

The union lost across the board. The Appeals Court found that Local 556, acting through union president, improperly pushed Southwest’s disciplinary process against Carter.

• The union caused her discharge because of her sincerely held religious beliefs
  
• They treated her less favorably than other employees for the same reason

The union argued that they weren’t the ones who fired her, and merely “attempting to cause” an adverse action was not enough. The Fifth Circuit rejected that, because Title VII expressly bars a union from causing or attempting to cause an employer to discriminate. So even if Southwest made the final firing decision, the union was still be liable for trying to get Southwest to take discriminatory action.

As exclusive representative, Local 556 owed Carter a duty to represent all flight attendants, members and nonmembers alike, without hostility or discrimination, with good faith and honesty, and without arbitrary conduct. The jury was persuaded that the union President reported her to Southwest:

• out of personal animosity toward her anti-union speech
  
• because of her nonmember agency-fee objector status
  
• and due to her support for the recall effort.

The union argued that Carter’s Facebook messages were not protected activity because they were abusive or insulting. The Fifth Circuit said that for the duty-of-fair-representation claim, the relevant issue was whether Stone’s reporting was arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith, not whether Carter’s own messages independently counted as protected organizing activity.

Effectively, the union weaponized Carter’s religious and anti-union criticism by reporting it through official channels to Southwest, trying to cause religiously discriminatory discipline, treating her worse because of her religious expression, failing to accommodate that religious expression, retaliating under the Railway Labor Act, and breaching its duty to represent her fairly.

The original jury verdict was roughly $5.1 million: more than $4 million against Southwest and $950,000 against the union. That was reduced by statutory caps and the district court’s post-verdict judgment. She ultimately received $946,102.87.

• Compensatory/punitive damages from Southwest: $300,000.00
  
• Compensatory/punitive damages from Local 556: $300,000.00
  
• Back pay: $150,000.00, plus pre-judgment interest on backpay $60,180.82 and post-judgment interest $135,922.05

Southwest paid Carter $150,000 in backpay and $323,051.44 for interest plus Southwest’s damages share, for a Southwest total of $473,051.44. Carter’s counsel confirms that she received the full balance from the union as well.