NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Southwest Airlines is back in federal court Monday to face charges it has filed for bankruptcy. Prize money: $8 million A flight attendant and the airline’s lawyer claim they were fired for their anti-abortion views Religious Freedom Training From a conservative Christian legal organization.
Southwest Airlines claims that flight attendant Charlene Carter was fired for violating company rules regarding workplace civility by sending “hostile and explicit” anti-abortion messages to a coworker who was also the president of a local labor union.
Mr Carter denounced the attendance of labour leaders as “despicable”. 2017 Women’s March In Washington, DC, participants protested the inauguration of then-President Donald Trump and called for the protection of abortion rights.
Carter’s lawyers argue that she made it clear to management that she sent the materials because “she is a pro-life Christian and, as a Christian, believes that she must communicate this to all those involved in the abortion issue.”
They argued that her firing violated federal law protecting employees from discrimination on the basis of religion, and that Southwest management and the union, who complained about Carr’s messages, should be held liable for the firing.
After the trial, U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr, who was appointed by President Trump and took office in 2019, ordered Southwest to inform its flight attendants that under federal law, “flight attendants may not discriminate against others because of their religious practices or beliefs.”
Instead, the Dallas-based airline told employees it “does not discriminate” and instructed flight attendants to follow the airline’s policies, which it cited in firing Carter.
Starr sued Southwest in contempt in August over the way it described the incident to flight attendants. He ordered Southwest to pay Carter’s latest legal costs and dictated a statement Southwest would give to employees.
The president also ordered the three attorneys in the Southwest District to complete at least eight hours of religious freedom training from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which provides training on complying with federal laws prohibiting religious discrimination in the workplace.
The conservative group has played a high-profile role in several legal battles, including: bakery and Website Designer People who don’t want to tackle same-sex marriage projects, efforts to restrict transgender rights, and challenges to longstanding federal recognition. Drugs Most Commonly Used to End Pregnancy.
In a written statement, Carter’s lawyers denied that the training ordered was a “general civil contempt sanction” and did not violate the airline’s free speech rights.
The initial award to Southwest and the union was $5.1 million, most of which was to be paid by Southwest. The judge, citing federal limits on punitive damages, later reduced the award to about $800,000: $450,000 in damages and unpaid wages for Southwest, $300,000 in damages for the union, and about $60,000 in interest.
