By Veronika Bondarenko | The Street
When it comes to letting their flight attendants and other workers express their political views, airlines are often in a tough spot between encouraging personal expression and avoiding the kind of arguments that broke out last month when a JetBlue Airways (JBLU) passenger was accused of “causing a disturbance” and had his return ticket canceled after bringing up an attendant’s “Free Palestine” pin.
As the story started picking up steam, JetBlue quickly changed its policy to ban all political displays on the uniform worn by its staff. While it previously allowed flight attendants to put on one pin of their choosing, the airline felt that this was necessary in an election year and a time when tensions run high around differing stances on Israel’s war in Gaza.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (LUV) ran into a similar problem when in the fall of 2022 a Texas judge ordered it to pay out $800,000 to a former flight attendant terminated after sending letters arguing that Southwest should take a stronger stance against abortion rights and calling the head of the union representing her “despicable” for attending the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D.C.