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DALLAS (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-life Christian flight attendant Charlene Carter won a $5.1 million lawsuit against Southwest Airlines and the Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU) last week after she was fired from her job five years ago for objecting to her local union’s support for abortion.
A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas delivered the verdict July 14, finding in Carter’s favor on all counts and awarding her $5.1 million in damages against TWU Local 556 and Southwest Airlines.
RELATED: Pro-life woman awarded $10k after being denied religious exemption from union dues
The finding came after Carter obtained legal representation from National Right to Work (NRTW). In her lawsuit, Carter contended that the airline and local union violated her rights by firing her after she objected to the union’s use of employee dues to donate to the pro-abortion Women’s March in Washington, D.C.
“This long overdue verdict vindicates Ms. Carter’s fundamental right to dissent from the causes and ideas that TWU union officials – who claim to ‘represent’ Southwest flight attendants – support while forcing workers to bankroll their activities,” NRTW President Mark Mix said in a press release shared with LifeSiteNews.
“Today is a victory for freedom of speech and religious beliefs. Flight attendants should have a voice and nobody should be able to retaliate against a flight attendant for engaging in protected speech against her union.”@FoxBusinesshttps://t.co/VyUhTkMaQQ
— National Right To Work Foundation (@RightToWork) July 18, 2022
“No American worker should have to fear termination, intimidation, or any other reprisal merely for speaking out against having their own money spent, purportedly in their name, to promote an agenda they find abhorrent,” Mix said.
The NRTW press release noted that after joining the local TWU union branch in 1996 as a Southwest employee, Carter rescinded her membership in 2013 when she became aware that her union dues were being used to fund groups and ideologies that cut against her religious beliefs.
Despite pulling out of her membership, however, she was reportedly still required to pay fees to the union “as a condition of her employment,” the press release stated.
In 2017, Carter became aware that the local union’s president had put employees’ union dues toward attending the “Women’s March on Washington D.C.,” which was partially sponsored by abortion industry giant Planned Parenthood.
30+ powerful big-box, Big Tech, and mainstream media companies are targeting their young female employees by offering abortion travel “benefits” to new mothers — to kill their children for the sake of corporate profit and productivity!
THIS PRO-DEATH CORPORATE CULTURE WILL DESTROY LIVES AND VILLIFY BIG FAMILIES AND PRO-LIFE VALUES IF WE DON’T ACT NOW!
***WE CANNOT LOSE THE PRO-LIFE VICTORY AFTER ROE V. WADE TO ANTI-FAMILY COMPANIES! SEND A MESSAGE TO POWERFUL CEOs TODAY THAT YOU SUPPORT OUR CHILDREN’S RIGHTS OF LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS!***
SIGN THE PETITION NOW TO WIN THE CORPORATE PRO-LIFE BATTLE!
Starbucks said it would reimburse travel expenses for employees who need abortions and cannot get them within 100 miles of their homes. In a memo on Monday, the company said it wanted to ensure that its employees had “access to quality health care.” https://t.co/PI1Yg2xKTx
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 16, 2022
Amazon says it will pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses annually for non-life threatening medical treatments including abortions, according to a message seen by Reuters. https://t.co/9M4Dtdzb4X
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 3, 2022
The pro-life movement has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to send a pro-family message to millions of citizens for generations to come — but we cannot LOSE OUT on this moment by caving to corporations and their cheap and disgusting “abortion” benefits!
CONSUMERS MUST SEND A RESOUNDING MESSAGE TO ALL CORPORATE LEADERS THAT WE WILL NOT TOLERATE EMPLOYEE ABORTION PRESSURE!
SIGN TODAY and demand the following company CEOs SUPPORT WOMEN AND CHILDREN NOW!
***WE ARE DELIVERING THIS LETTER TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM!***
Jeff Bezos – Amazon
Brian Moynihan – Bank of America
Whitney Wolfe Herd – Bumble
BuzzFeed – Jonah Peretti
Cigna Health Insurance – David Cordani
Citigroup – Jane Fraser
CNN – Chris Licht
Comcast – Brian Roberts
Condé Nast – Roger Lynch
CVS Health – Karen Lynch
Dick’s Sporting Goods – Lauren Hobart
Goldman Sachs – David Solomon
Hewlett-Packard – Enrique Lores
JPMorgan Chase – Jamie Dimon
Kroger – Rodney McMullen
New York Times – Meredith Kopit Levien
Lyft – Logan Green
MasterCard – Michael Miebach
Meta/Facebook - Mark Zuckerberg
Microsoft – Satya Nadella
Paramount – Brian Robbins
Patagonia – Jenna Johnson
PayPal – Dan Schulman
Procter & Gamble – Jon Moeller
Salesforce – Marc Benioff
Starbucks – Kevin Johnson
Target – Brian Cornell
Tesla, Inc. – Elon Musk
Uber – Dara Khosrowshahi
Vox Media – Jim Bankoff
Disney – Bob Chapek
Yelp – Jeremy Stoppelman
Zillow – Rich Barton
*** SIGN NOW AND MAKE YOUR PRO-LIFE AND PRO-FAMILY VOICE HEARD AT THE WORLD'S LARGEST CORPORATIONS! TELL THESE CEOs TO STOP SUPPORTING ABORTION TODAY! ***
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After she expressed her opposition to the union’s political stance via social media, Southwest reportedly called Carter in for a mandatory meeting to discuss “Facebook posts they had seen,” including her pro-life messages.
“Carter explained her religious beliefs and opposition to the union’s political activities,” the NRTW press release said, adding that the Christian flight attendant told Southwest she objected to the union claiming to “represent all Southwest flight attendants.”
According to the press release, Southwest authorities responded by telling Carter that the union president had been “harassed” by Carter’s social media posts. A week later, the airline reportedly terminated Carter’s employment.
That same year, the fired former flight attendant filed a federal lawsuit with the assistance of NRTW.
Now, five years later, a federal jury decided in Carter’s favor.
“Today is a victory for freedom of speech and religious beliefs,” Carter said in another email shared with LifeSite by an NRTW spokesman. “I am so humbled and thankful for today’s decision and for everyone who’s supported me these past five years, including the National Right to Work Foundation.”
“Flight attendants should have a voice and nobody should be able to retaliate against a flight attendant for engaging in protected speech against her union,” Carter said.