Tipsheet

Here's Why Southwest Airlines Just Paid a Flight Attendant Nearly $1 Million

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  May 06, 2026 8:30 AM

Southwest Airlines finally paid a wrongly terminated flight attendant nearly $1 million, almost a decade after she says she was fired for expressing her pro-life views with the Transport Workers Union Local 556. Charlene Carter, who worked for Southwest for more than two decades, resigned from the union in 2013 but was required to keep paying dues.

During the 2017 Women's March, which the union supported, Carter sent pro-life messages to union leadership. That, she said, was why she was let go from her job. She sued and in 2022, a federal jury agreed with Carter. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld that decision. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr also ordered the airline to reinstate Carter and pay her $810,000 in damages and $150,000 in back pay.

Despite those rulings, the airline dragged its feet. Judge Starr held Southwest in contempt for failing to pay, and now — three years later — they have finally cut a check to Carter.

Here's more:

“Today is a victory for freedom of speech and religious beliefs,” she said. “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.”

Southwest had defended the firing, saying Carter’s messages amounted to harassment. The airline told employees it “does not discriminate” and directed them to follow the same policy used in her case. The contempt finding also led to orders for three Southwest lawyers to complete religious-liberty training.

The case is not entirely resolved.

Contempt proceedings continue over the adequacy of Southwest’s court-ordered notice to its flight attendants.

Carter’s attorneys maintained throughout the litigation that her pro-life views are protected religious expression and that no employee should face retaliation for opposing the use of union dues for causes they find morally objectionable. The jury’s verdict and the airline’s payment affirm that position.

It's a good thing Carter finally received justice, but it should not have taken a decade.

Carter never should have been terminated in the first place.

Unions do one thing: enrich the leadership and force its ideologies on its members.

And "harassment" for expressing your views that killing unborn humans is wrong.