A North Texas federal judge ordered Dallas-based Southwest Airlines to reinstate a flight attendant who claimed she was unfairly fired for airing her views against abortion, but cut her $5.3 million jury award to just over $800,000 to abide by federal limits.
In an order issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr said Southwest must reinstate former flight attendant Charlene Carter, who claimed the airline and Transport Workers Union Local 556 violated her rights by firing her after she sent confrontational anti-abortion messages to the union’s former president.
Starr, who is based in Dallas and was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, also reduced the jury’s original $5.3 million in damages to $810,180, including $150,000 in back pay. That’s because federal discrimination law limits damages that companies can pay in such cases.
“The Court ENJOINS Defendants from discriminating against Southwest flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs, including — but not limited to — those expressed on social media and those concerning abortion,” Starr wrote in the ruling.
Carter was fired in March 2017 after sending confrontational emails and social media messages to former flight attendant union President Audrey Stone. Carter called Stone “despicable” for attending the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., earlier that year, according to the lawsuit.
“This is what you supported during your paid leave with others at the Women’s March in D.C.,” Carter wrote in one Facebook message to Stone, according to the lawsuit. “… You truly are despicable in so many ways.”
Carter said Stone and the union shouldn’t support an event that included groups such as Planned Parenthood, which supports abortion rights.
Stone never responded to her Facebook messages, but after sending several notes, Carter was later told by Southwest management that she was required to attend a mandatory meeting on the issue.
Carter argued that the Railway Labor Act governing labor agreements at airlines protects her to engage in “protected speech and activity in opposing, challenging, and advocating against Local 556, President Stone, and the union’s activities.”
In July, a North Texas jury said Southwest Airlines should pay $4.15 million in back pay, pain and suffering and other costs to Carter, with the union being ordered to pay another $1.15 million. Carter was represented by the National Right To Work Committee, an avid anti-union group with a legal team that fights compulsory union membership and dues.
The National Right to Work Committee said the union violated Carter’s religious liberty by supporting pro-abortion groups and causes.
“Ms. Carter’s victory should prompt nationwide scrutiny of union bosses’ coercive, government-granted powers over workers, especially in the airline and rail industries,” said a statement from National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Even after her victory, she and her colleagues at Southwest and other airlines under union control can be forced, as per the Railway Labor Act, to pay money to union officials just to keep their jobs.”
Starr also warned the airline and the union not to retaliate against Carter and to post the jury verdict in break rooms, on bulletin boards and to send it to employees.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King said the company plans to appeal the verdict to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Southwest Airlines has a demonstrated history of supporting our employees’ rights to express their opinions when done in a respectful manner,” she said in an email. “We are in the process of assessing the requirements of the recent judgment as we move forward with our plans for an appeal.”
