“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” unless you are an employee of United Airlines who chooses your faith over CEO Scott Kirby’s illegally implemented vaccine mandate. Not since 2017, when the airline violently removed Dr. David Dao from an oversold flight, has a company acted so improperly. This time, it’s not the passengers in the crosshairs. Rather, United is taking aim at its loyal employees.
After rolling out a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in August, CEO Kirby threatened employees who sought religious and medical accommodations: “There will be very few people who get through the medical and religious exemptions … any pilot that’s decided they all the sudden, or any employee that’s all the sudden decided I’m really religious … you’re putting your job on the line. You’d better be very careful about that.”
However, more than 2,000 United employees are fighting back. Kirby’s edict is being challenged in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. While the legal argument centers around reasonable accommodations, it is foundationally a question of religious freedom. At this “woke” airline where people of all genders can pick their pronouns, the religious are conveniently omitted. Does an employer have the right to mandate his workforce violate their beliefs to satisfy a marketing scheme?
To get the airline 100% vaccinated before the holiday travel season, United violated most Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's “best practices” regarding reasonable accommodations. Strong-arm tactics, invasive inquiries, and public distribution of private medical information ensued. Union leaders joined the pressure campaign, and unvaccinated employees were forced to wear N95 respirators, a “scarlet letter,” as punishment and for identification.
Couched in false claims of safety, the hypocrisy of United’s actions abounds. Aimed at cutting costs, the airline quietly rescinded many of its onboard Covid mitigations procedures. Now, when parked at the gate, jets no longer use high-flow conditioned air from the auxiliary power unit filtered through the HEPA systems. The electrostatic spraying between every flight ceased. Most recently United returned to shared beverage cans and glassware in First Class. All of these facts (and others) show that United’s “safety” claims are—as a federal district court has recognized—a pretext for the company’s discrimination.
Meanwhile, just as courts are upholding worker rights, United grounded 300 of its most experienced pilots—a move that may detrimentally impact holiday schedules. These faithful pilots banned together with co-workers from all departments to stand for their faith and their medical autonomy forming Airline Employees 4 Health Freedom.
To date, AE4HF members have filed more than 1,800 claims with the EEOC to address United’s discrimination. Investigators have indicated support for the United employees, assisting at every step and working to consolidate cases. While the legal argument centers around Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and employees’ rights to reasonable accommodations, it is all about religious freedom.
Title VII discrimination also addresses the creation of a “hostile environment.” For the faithful at United, a hostile work environment is a daily reality. Supervisors and union officials pressure employees to violate their faith under threat of termination, effectively a quid pro quo. Harassing statements are posted in breakrooms and on social media while managers look the other way. Even those who acquiesce are not safe. For financial reasons, a single flight attendant with a young son violated her faith and subsequently experienced a life-threatening reaction to the shot. While in the hospital she missed the deadline to submit her vaccination card and was terminated anyway.
For many United faithful, the holiday season looks bleak. Unsatisfied with merely placing those who refuse to be part of his marketing plan on unpaid leave, Scrooge appears determined to destroy them. Indeed, United has gone far beyond just robbing employees of their paychecks. By keeping those granted “accommodations” on “active” status, United blocks workers from seeking outside aviation employment, accessing their 401K savings, and using medical insurance benefits.
A recent decision from the Fifth Circuit, however, provides hope for the 2,000-plus faithful litigants. That case held that forcing one to choose between a “jab and a job” is irreparable harm. Whether the employees get an injunction in time to save Christmas will not be the end of the story. AE4HF members will continue to ensure United is accountable for its Title VII violations in federal court. In the meantime, though, United employees will continue to pray that their story mirrors “A Christmas Carol” and that Scrooge sees the error of his ways, becoming the good-hearted man he should have been all along.
Captain Sherry Walker along with Captain Laura Cox and Danielle Runyan, Esq. are founders of Airline Employees 4 Health Freedom (jabs4jobs.org).
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