Southwest Airlines To Fight Judge’s Ruling Slamming ‘Intolerance of Speech’ in Fired Worker’s Case

A pin that Charlene Carter wore on her Southwest Airlines flight attendant uniform, at her home in Aurora, Colo., on Aug. 30, 2022.

A pro-life flight attendant’s five-year quest to get her job back may not be over yet.

On Dec. 5, a Texas federal judge ordered Southwest Airlines to reinstate Charlene Carter.

Judge Brantley Starr also chastised the company’s “intolerance of speech,” as he ordered the company and Transport Workers Union of America Local 556 to pay Carter a combined total of more than $835,000 in back pay, damages, and other compensation.

In July, a jury voted to award Carter $5 million, but rules and laws cap the amounts that can be issued in such cases, Starr said. He noted that 2,092 days had passed since Carter was fired on March 14, 2017, for criticizing her union and expressing religious-based pro-life views via social media.

Charlene Carter holds her former Southwest Airlines flight attendant's uniform at her home in Aurora, Colo., on Aug. 30, 2022. (Michael Ciaglo for The Epoch Times)

But Southwest says it vows to prolong the fight, despite a rebuke from the judge. “Perhaps Southwest missed the point of the jury verdict, so the court must state it again,” Starr wrote.

“The problem, in this case, was not speech. The problem was intolerance of speech.”

A day after Starr’s ruling, the company responded to The Epoch Times’ request for comment in an email stating: “Southwest Airlines has a demonstrated history of supporting our employees’ rights to express their opinions when done in a respectful manner.

“We are disappointed with this judgment based on the facts of the case and plan to appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.”

Facebook Posts Still Monitored

In his ruling, the judge said that Southwest and Local 556 “have repeatedly failed to appreciate the problem with their conduct involving Carter.”

He said the jury found the company and the union were “grossly intolerant of their flight attendant’s speech in violation of federal law.”

Even after the verdict, “their lawyers continue to hunt for ‘controversial’ social-media posts from Carter instead of pondering their own mistakes and planning a future life free of them,” Starr wrote.

In its letter terminating Carter, Southwest said her “graphic” Facebook posts, which included videos of an aborted fetus, were “highly offensive.” They also said private messages she sent to the union president were “harassing and inappropriate.”

Carter said she was expressing her religious views opposing abortion. She objected to her union’s participation in activities supported by pro-abortion groups.

Such speech is protected under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as well as the Railway Labor Act, which governs unions that represent airline employees, Carter’s lawyers argued. A jury and the judge agreed.

Nationwide Scrutiny Sought

The National Right To Work Foundation represented Carter in court.

In an emailed statement, foundation president Mark Mix said: “Southwest and TWU union officials made Ms. Carter pay an unconscionable price just because she decided to speak out against the political activities of union officials in accordance with her deeply held religious beliefs.

“This decision vindicates Ms. Carter’s rights—but it’s also a stark reminder of the retribution that union officials will mete out against employees who refuse to toe the union line.”

Mix said he hoped the Carter case would “prompt nationwide scrutiny of union bosses’ coercive, government-granted powers over workers, especially in the airline and rail industries.”

Carter opted out of Local 556 several years before she was fired, but she was still required to pay fees to the union.

Workers 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,” Mix said.

Fight Affects Thousands

Mike Casper, who worked 38 years as a Southwest flight attendant before retiring amid the pandemic in 2020, said he was disappointed but not surprised to hear that the company intends to continue fighting Carter.

“All they’re doing is kicking the can down the road because they know they’re going to lose,” Casper said.

He estimated that Southwest employs about 18,000 flight attendants, and he said Carter was fighting on behalf of all of them.

“It’s a pity that Charlene couldn’t get the full $5 million,” he said.

Casper started a Facebook page called “Transcripts and Depositions II,” which focuses mostly on providing court records related to Carter’s case.

In an open letter to the company’s CEO and board of directors posted there, Casper said that Carter was not alone in being targeted.

He urged the company to “conduct an immediate, in-depth examination of the trial transcripts and depositions. Identify all bad actors and issue proper discipline, including termination. Clean house.”

Casper said he has not received a response.