A North Texas jury awarded a former Southwest Airlines flight attendant $5.3 million after she was fired for sending anti-abortion messages to her union’s president.
The jury in the U.S. District Court case found that the Dallas-based airline and the flight attendants’ union, Transport Workers Union Local 556, violated her rights as a worker to advocate against her union. The jury said Southwest Airlines should pay $4.15 million in back pay, pain and suffering and other costs and that the union should pay her another $1.15 million.
Charlene Carter was fired in March 2017 after she sent a series of confrontational emails to TWU Local 556 President Audrey Stone, calling her “despicable” for attending the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., earlier that year, according to the lawsuit.
