Charlene Carter has received $946,102.87 from Southwest Airlines and the Transport Workers Union, bringing the long-running case that began in 2017 a step closer to its end. A Satisfaction of Judgment filed with the District Court shows the payment, after years of litigation over her firing and later court rulings that found she was discriminated against because of her religious practice.
Carter sued in the Northern District Court of Texas after she criticized TWU Local 556 president for using union dues to send flight attendants to the 2017 Women's March. Her case went to trial about five years later, when a jury awarded her a $5 million verdict. The District Court then ordered Southwest and the union to pay the maximum compensatory and punitive damages allowed under federal law and to reinstate her as a flight attendant.
The dispute did not end there. On appeal, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the finding that both Southwest and the union had discriminated against Carter based on her religious practice, keeping the case alive even after the verdict. The lawsuit was brought under the federal Railway Labor Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and it has stretched across nearly a decade of hearings, rulings and appeals.
What remains open now is whether Southwest will face contempt. The District Court is still taking briefing on that question after company attorneys sent notices to flight attendants that incorrectly described the court's holding. Carter, meanwhile, said the case was about her livelihood and her beliefs, and Mark Mix called her courageous in standing up to union officials and an employer he said went along with them.
For Carter, the payment is a major financial milestone, but the court fight around Southwest Airlines is not fully over until the contempt issue is resolved.