On Thursday, the non-profit National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in favor of Charlene Carter, a professing Christian.
Per the judge’s ruling, Carter will receive $5.1 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages against the Transportation Workers Union of America and Southwest Airlines after the jury concluded that her termination was unlawful.
Carter had also spoken out against the use of union dues to support abortion-related causes.
National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix said in a statement, “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. 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.”
In 2017, after learning that her union dues were being used to support abortion-related causes, including the “Women’s March on Washington DC,” an event that called for legal abortion and the funding of Planned Parenthood, Carter sued the TWU of America and Southwest Airlines.