A legal parry and riposte between two fired employees, SkyWest Airlines and the SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA) is taking off after allegations of wrongful termination and labor violations led to counterclaims of hacking and union election interference.
Attorneys representing former SkyWest flight attendants Shane Price and Tresa Grange filed an answer on Tuesday denying SIA’s counterclaim that alleges the two illegally hacked into the organization’s website to obtain confidential information and skew votes during SIA’s leadership election.
This comes after the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) filed a federal lawsuit against SkyWest Airlines and the SkyWest Inflight Association for violations of the Railway Labor Act (RLA) including illegal termination of the two union activists and unlawfully standing up a company union. SkyWest is the largest regional airline in the U.S. with a fleet of nearly 500 aircraft that connects passengers to 249 destinations in North America.
In their answer to SIA’s counterclaims, the plaintiffs denied all allegations, only confirming that several flight attendants complained of anomalies regarding the process to vote in SIA’s August 2023 election, and the election results were not certified. The plaintiffs requested that the court dismiss the counterclaims.
The Lawsuit
On Oct. 11, 2023, an AFA news release alleged that SkyWest flight attendants and AFA activists Shane Price and Tresa Grange were illegally fired by the airline in September 2023 in violation of the RLA. The complaint alleged that SkyWest fired the two flight attendants in retaliation for their support of efforts to obtain a union representation election at SkyWest and to address voting irregularities with SIA.
AFA’s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, where SkyWest is headquartered and the flight attendants live.
“Because the Railway Labor Act does not have “unfair labor practices,” commonly known as ULPs, under the National Labor Relations Act, enforcement of these violations rests with the federal courts – and the court of public opinion,” the release stated.
The allegations made by the AFA against SkyWest/SIA were as follows:
- SkyWest violated the Railway Labor Act by funding and controlling SIA
- SkyWest wrongfully terminated Shane Price and Tresa Grange in violation of the Railway Labor Act.
- SkyWest failed to provide a mechanism for arbitration of employee termination
- The SkyWest Inflight Association breached its duty of fair representation by collaborating with SkyWest management in Price and Grange’s terminations.
- SkyWest violated the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act by failing to publicly report receipts of payments to labor organizations or expenditures to interfere with employees exercising the right to organize and bargain collectively.
On July 10, 2024, the AFA amended their lawsuit against SkyWest to include an additional sixth allegation that the carrier interfered with organizing and the choice of union representatives in violation of the Railway Labor Act.
SIA’s Response and Counterclaims
The SkyWest Inflight Association denied all allegations made by the AFA in an answer to their amended complaint filed on July 25, 2024.
On count three, SIA argues that SkyWest’s Flight Attendant Policy Manual (FAPM) meets the requirements of the RLA, which they claim does not actually mandate “arbitration” but does mandate a system board process that is incorporated in the FAPM.
On count four, SIA argues that the FAPM states SkyWest has the right to terminate employees for just cause. SIA alleges illegal and improper actions of Price and Grange constituted just cause for their terminations and denied all allegations of unfairness.
SIA referenced its motion to dismiss count five and offered no response to its allegations. It also denied count six.
Furthermore, SIA alleged Price and Grange violated the federal Stored Communications Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the State of Utah’s Computer Abuse and Data Recovery Act. SIA also added a counterclaim against Grange for breach of contract.
“Price, who had no right or authorization to access a certain non-public area of SIA’s website, nevertheless hacked into it in order to obtain confidential information about the Fight Attendants represented by SIA …,” SIA’s counterclaim stated.
This information included employee numbers and individualized codes assigned to flight attendants for casting ballots in the internal SIA leadership election. SIA alleges that Grange and Price secretly used the voting credentials of tens of flight attendants who had yet to cast their ballots.
Additionally, SIA alleged that Price proceeded to create a detailed video demonstrating to others how they could also hack SIA’s website, and Grange publicly posted the video. SIA demanded a jury trial against Price and Grange to pay for damages.
