UTAH- SkyWest Airlines (OO) and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) are now embroiled in an intensifying legal dispute linked to events at SkyWest’s base, a conflict that has also raised concerns referenced by some as the SkyWest Election Fraud controversy.
The case has advanced after a Utah District Court allowed a conspiracy-based computer fraud counterclaim to proceed.
The contentious allegations were made against AFA-CWA by a staff association representing crew members at the major regional carrier SkyWest Airlines, which provides services to the likes of Alaska Airlines (AS), Delta Air Lines (DL), and United Airlines (UA).
In October 2023, AFA-CWA sued SkyWest over accusations of serious labor law violations tied to its funding of the SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA). In response, SIA filed a slew of serious counterclaims against AFA-CWA.
Skywest Faces Election Fraud Claim
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA represents more than 50,000 flight attendants and stands as the largest crew member union in the United States.
For years, it has tried but failed to become the official union of around 4,600 flight attendants at the Utah-based regional carrier SkyWest Airlines.
Since 2019, SkyWest has funded an independent staff association for its crew members known as the SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA for short).
SIA serves as the only body allowed to negotiate with SkyWest management over pay, conditions, and internal policies, although AFA-CWA has questioned SIA’s true independence or ability to negotiate on behalf of SkyWest flight attendants.
A dispute between AFA-CWA, SIA, and SkyWest came to a head in 2023 when the airline sacked two veteran crew members after they exposed what they claimed were serious security flaws with an internal election held by SIA.
According to PYOK, the terminations of Price and Grange followed their disclosure of vulnerabilities in SIA’s voting system.
Election Website Vulnerability
In April 2023, one of the flight attendants who was later terminated discovered that SIA’s supposed secure website could be easily manipulated by changing the URL.
This then allowed access to confidential information like crew member names, their ID numbers, and voting credentials for SIA elections.
The crew member shared this information with a coworker and an AFA-CWA representative. But rather than also immediately reporting the vulnerability to SIA, the trio allegedly sat on this information, according to SIA.
More than that, SIA claims the three hatched a plan to quietly access the vulnerability each month, and AFA-CWA’s agent allegedly instructed one of the crew members to “quietly download” information from the SIA secure website each month, the association claimed.
This continued until August 2023, when SIA held internal elections. After votes had already been cast, another crew member produced a video explaining the vulnerability, which ultimately led to the ballot being abandoned.
SIA Files 8 Counterclaims Against AFA-CWA
AFA-CWA filed its suit against SkyWest in October 2023 over what it described as “extraordinary violations” of labor law.
The lawsuit almost immediately followed SkyWest’s decision to terminate the two flight attendants who had exposed the security vulnerability in SIA’s secure website.
SIA responded with eight counterclaims against AFA-CWA:
- Violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
- Claims under the Stored Communications Act
- Utah Computer Abuse and Data Recovery Act
- Breach of Contract against one of the crew members
- Conversion (civil theft of property)
- Trespass to Chattels
- Civil Conspiracy
- Tortious Interference with Contract
AFA-CWA then moved to have six of these counterclaims dismissed.
Judge Barlow Rules on Counterclaims
Earlier this week, District Judge David Barlow made his ruling. Judge Barlow ruled that many of SIA’s counterclaims should be dismissed, including a standalone civil conspiracy claim.
The judge did, however, allow part of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act counterclaim to proceed, notably that of conspiracy.
The ongoing lawsuit alleges that SkyWest violated the Railway Labor Act in several areas, including funding SIA and terminating Price and Grange without a mechanism for arbitration.
Department of Labor Sues SIA
Last August, the Department of Labor filed a separate lawsuit against SIA over the way it ran its local elections in 2023.
The lawsuit alleged that a former executive officer of SIA and potentially several other members of the association cast ballots for at least 300 members.
This came to light when members went to vote, only to find that their ballots had already been cast.
When SIA carried out a rerun of the election, it disqualified two nominees because they had allegedly shown disloyalty to the association over their support for AFA-CWA.
Although very narrow in its scope, a district judge has ruled that a counterclaim can continue against an AFA-CWA agent for alleged computer fraud conspiracy in connection with a secure website used by the SkyWest staff association.
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