Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant is celebrating after a US District Court awarded her $5.3 Million.
Charlene Carter was fired in 2017 after she sent an angry letter to her union boss pointing out that member dues had been used to send over a dozen other flight attendants to that year’s Women’s March, a rabidly leftwing, pro-abortion event. Carter was a Christian and fervent believer. She didn’t appreciate that her union money was being used for something she disagreed with.
Half a decade after first being terminated for her pro-life views, she’s been awarded $4.15 million from Southwest Airlines and an additional $1.15 million from her former union.
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. She was awarded $4.15 million by Southwest Airlines for back pay, pain, suffering and other expenses. The union received an additional $1.15million.
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.
The first question I had when I saw this report was why this union would be sending anyone to the Women’s March in the first place? It is a question of what this has to do with flying as a pilot, and how can you open up to internal divisions over it? Corporations are more likely to get involved with politics than their customers, or in this instance, their employees. It’s really not that difficult to just focus on the company’s actual mission.
Southwest Airlines, specifically: Has any corporation ruined its reputation more in the last couple of years than Southwest Airlines? Once known as the “fun” airline that was “different,” Southwest is now put in the same category as all the rest, and deservedly so. They never should have gone along with the union boss’ retaliation ploy that ultimately led to the termination of Carter.
That’s how it works: corporations who refuse to follow their lead and get involved in politics will face increasing resistance. Carter would not have lodged her complaint against the union if they had not been neutral about such sensitive issues. When they didn’t, she had the right to oppose her leadership. Their rash decision not to fire her cost the union and its members millions. I have a response. Good.
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