The House Oversight Committee is holding a hearing on the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion.
A federal jury in Texas has awarded a former Southwest flight attendant more than $5 million after the airline fired her over her stance on abortion in a lawsuit dating back to 2017.
The award of combined compensatory and punitive damages comes after the Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU) Local 556 and Southwest fired Charlene Carter over her religious stance on abortion, which she posted on social media.
“Today is a victory for freedom of speech and religious belief. Flight attendants should have a voice and no one should be able to retaliate against a flight attendant for engaging in protected speech against her union,” Carter told FOX Business in a statement Friday. “I am so humbled and grateful for today’s decision and for everyone who has supported me over the past five years, including the National Right to Work Foundation.”
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Adam Greenfield, an attorney with the law firms of Cloutman and Greenfield, PLLC, representing TWU Local 556, said the “factual evidence” in the case “points to a different outcome than the recent jury decision, which may have misunderstood the court’s charge.”
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“We look forward to the appellate review,” Greenfield said.
Southwest and TWU Local 556 did not immediately respond to inquiries from FOX Business Friday afternoon.
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Carter joined the union in 1996 and resigned in 2013 after realizing her religious views did not align with those of the union, but she was required to continue paying dues as a condition of her employment, according to press release.
In 2017, Carter learned that the union and its president, Audrey Stone, attended the Women’s March on Washington, which received some funding from Planned Parenthood. The flight attendant criticized the union’s attendance on social media.
A federal jury has awarded a former Southwest flight attendant more than $5 million. (Charlene Carter/Fox News)
Carter also sent messages to the union leader expressing his intention to support efforts to recall Stone.
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Southwest managers then informed Carter that she had to attend a meeting regarding her Facebook posts, during which the airline presented screenshots of Carter’s social media activity and pro-life messages and asked why she had posted them.
Company officials also told Carter that Stone claimed she had been “harassed” by Carter online, and Southwest fired her a week later, according to the lawsuit.
Southwest flight attendant Charlene Carter has been awarded more than $5 million in a lawsuit that claims her firing by the company over her stance on abortion was illegal. (Southwest Airlines/Steven M. Keller)
“No American worker should fear firing, intimidation, or any other repressive action simply for speaking out against the spending of his own money, allegedly on his behalf, to promote an agenda he finds repugnant.” , said Mark Meeks, president of the National Law at Work Foundation, which has offered pro bono legal representation to Carter.
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Meeks added that “even with this basic right” to disagree with the union’s ideas “under the successfully defended Railroad Labor Act, TWU union officials still enjoy the enormous government-granted privilege of being able to coerce airline workers to financially subsidize their activities as a condition of employment.”
“While we are proud to stand behind Ms. Carter and are pleased with the verdict, ultimately there should be no place in American labor law for forcing workers to fund a private organization that violates their core beliefs,” he continued.
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