The Chicago, Illinois-based United Airlines has been sued by two thousand employees after the company threatened that they might lose their job over seeking religious exemptions to the COVID vaccine mandate. The employees were subjected to unpaid leave after they applied for a religious or medical exemption to the airline's sweeping vaccine mandate.
"Any pilot, or any employee that all of the sudden decides, 'I'm really religious,' you're putting your job on the line," United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby declared, as reported by CBN News. "You better be very careful about that."
Kirby's threat launched a class-action lawsuit filed by more than two thousand United Airlines employees that came together in a coalition called Airline Employees for Health Freedom (AE4HF). The group claims that the airline violated their statutory rights after it fired at least 200 workers and refused to pay 2,000 employees for over a month.
"We are standing for our religious freedom and our medical autonomy, and we believe we are entitled to the protections under Title VII," AE4HF co-founder and captain for United Airlines Sherry Walker declared. Walker also accused United Airlines of preventing employees from seeking employment elsewhere and refusing access to their savings and 401K.
Meanwhile, the AE4HF's class-action lawsuit is now resting at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In the event the judge rules in favor of the workers, win on a merit and receive a preliminary injunction, United Airlines will be required to restore their employment or provide them with paid leave.
United Airlines' response to employees who apply for religious exemptions to the COVID vaccine also got the attention of the Senate Oversight Committee. Lawmakers questioned major airlines, including United Airlines, on how they spent more than $70 million in the Cares Act funds that was used to help them recover from the COVID pandemic.
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James Ho wrote in an opinion that the district court concluded, "[United Airlines'] mandate...reflects an apathy, if not antipathy, for many of its employees' concerns and a dearth of toleration for those expressing diversity of thought." The opinion added that the airline demonstrated a "calloused approach" and "apparent disdain for" people of faith.
Breitbart reported that United Airlines' treatment of its religious employees caught the attention of Sen. Ted Cruz, who blasted Kirby for his "deeply disturbing" treatment of unvaccinated workers. During a hearing for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation about the airline industry's oversight, the Republican leader from Texas grilled Kirby on the company's vaccine mandate.
Sen. Cruz questioned Kirby as to why United Airlines, in the midst of a pilot shortage, decided to place 80 pilots who had sought religious or medical exemptions on unpaid leave. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee also confronted Kirby on his "seemingly self-created dilemma," the report said. The case "Sambrano v. United Airlines" is now awaiting developments in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
