Lawsuit: United Airlines Mocked and Shamed Vaccine Mandate Holdouts — CEO Accused of Floating ‘Scarlet Letter’ on ID Badges

Vax Lawsuit Alleges United Airlines’ Hostility Toward Religious Employees

A legal brief alleges United Airlines expressed animosity toward religious employees who sought exemptions from…

Breitbart

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby and upper management expressed animosity toward religious employees who sought exemptions from the company’s draconian coronavirus vaccine mandate, internal company communications have revealed.

A legal brief filed early Saturday in part of a larger lawsuit against the airline contains internal communications obtained in discovery, which shows management’s effort to coerce religious employees to take the coronavirus vaccine at every turn. The effort was so blatant that one union president, Craig Symons, expressed to Scott Kirby and others that United was “over the line” and attempting to institute a “purge of religious orthodoxy,” the brief revealed.

“These employees love their jobs, and it’s appalling that United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby would try to force these good people to violate their faith or put their health at risk as a condition for being able to keep their jobs,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Paoletta from Schaerr Jaffe LLP. “Kirby’s hostility and utter contempt for his employees’ faith and health are despicable and violates their civil rights, and he should be held accountable, both in the court of law and the court of public opinion.”

United Airlines had one of the strictest coronavirus vaccine mandates in the country for a private company, even compared to competing airlines. In August of 2021, the airline told its 60,000-plus U.S. employees that they would have to get vaccinated against the virus or face firing. United reported at the time that roughly 96 percent complied with the mandate, though several hundred who refused were fired. Approximately 2,300 employees received religious and medical exemptions, though that consisted of the company granting them what it called a “reasonable accommodation” by placing them on unpaid leave and stripping them of their medical benefits.

Several employees sued the airline the next month, alleging the company violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by discriminating against them based on their religious and medical exemptions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ultimately held that the mandate inflicted irreparable harm and remanded the case to the district court.

In addition to the loss of their income for several months before the federal court order got them back on the job while this lawsuit is ongoing, those employees, many of whom are self-professing Christians who objected to the vaccine because it was developed using aborted fetal tissue, reported experiencing “mental anguish, financial and emotional distress.” Plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged that they were dealing with highly adverse outcomes because of the “reasonable accommodation,” like risking homelessness and foregoing a spouse’s cancer treatment.

Captain Sherry Walker, co-founder of Airline Employees for Health Freedom, exclusively told Breitbart News, “Literally thousands of United Airlines employees lost their paycheck when they were illegally denied reasonable accommodations for their religious beliefs, hurting their ability to put food on the table and pay family medical bills because of CEO Scott Kirby’s punitive mandate, which we now learn arose from Kirby’s shocking disdain for people of faith.”

Sambrano v United Airlines-238-Motion to Certify Class Action by Breitbart News on Scribd

The brief quotes from internal company communications show upper management’s efforts to intimidate religious employees, including asking inappropriate and probing questions about their faith and attempting to cause strife in their marriages by sending home notes written in “red text” threatening termination…