Exclusive — 'Mental Anguish, Financial and Emotional Distress': Unvaxed United Airlines Employees Send 1,000s of Letters to Board of Directors

A United Airlines pilot of more than six years and his wife suffered “mental anguish, financial and emotional distress” following the company’s enforcement of its vaccine mandate, and were ruined financially to the point of being unable to afford in-vitro fertilization (IVF) after a crushing miscarriage, a letter to the company’s board of directors reads.

Breitbart News learned exclusively that potentially thousands of unvaccinated United Airlines employees — including the Orthodox Jewish pilot trying to expand his family — sent letters to the company’s board of directors last week detailing the struggles they have endured because of the company’s mandate. United Airlines’ coronavirus vaccine mandate differs from other airlines in that employees who received religious or medical exemptions were placed on indefinite unpaid leave and stripped of their medical insurance.

The mandate is currently the subject of a class-action lawsuit representing 2,000 employees who were placed on unpaid leave because of their refusal to get vaccinated. In mid-February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit delivered a substantial victory to the United employees, ruling that the company’s mandate inflicts “irreparable harm” because it “coerce[s] the plaintiffs into violating their religious convictions.

“…That harm and that harm alone is irreparable and supports a preliminary injunction,” the three-judge panel ruled 2-1, ultimately sending the case back to District Court Judge Mark Pittman for further review.

Co-founder of Airline Employees 4 Health Freedom and experienced airline Captain Sherry Walker exclusively told Breitbart News that her organization is “extremely happy that the Fifth [Circuit] has recognized the pain and suffering and the irreparable harm” caused to its members because of United’s stringent vaccine mandate.

“And we are patiently awaiting the next step in the process,” Walker said.

Walker and her organization oversaw the campaign to flood the company’s board of directors with thousands of letters in the hopes that unvaccinated employees who obtained religious and medical exemptions could return to work.

“Our members love their jobs. They cannot wait to get back to work. Our pilots are itching to go flying,” she said. “Our flight attendants can’t wait to get back to serving our customers. I think they all just miss their jobs terribly.”

Walker speculated that the board of directors “is not quite aware of the dire straits” some unvaccinated employees have been in.

“You know, missing house payments for three and four months gets you pretty close to foreclosure and things like that. And so I think that they’re just eager to reach out to any other possible resources to express their desire to return to work and the desperation that we’re all feeling out here,” she continued.

The Orthodox Jewish pilot and his wife are a prime example of how the company’s vaccine mandate has negatively impacted loyal employees. In his letter, which Breitbart News exclusively obtained, he detailed his and his wife’s struggle to expand their family after having to use their savings to stay afloat. (Breitbart News redacted details which could identify the sender.)

His letter, dated Feb. 21, 2022, reads in part:

As a result of being placed on Unpaid Leave, as well as being financially forced to cancel company provided health insurance, and all other benefits/privileges revoked; these are some of the impacts on our life: (redacted) and I have been married for 10 years and have been trying to start a family of our own for the entire duration but have faced many challenges with this.

In 2020, we were finally able to afford In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), and had two embryos transferred; unfortunately, the first one turned into an ectopic pregnancy, and the second we lost at the beginning of the second trimester. After rebuilding and recovering from the emotional trauma of those losses, we looked forward to attempting another round this past winter. However, due to the unreasonable accommodation that United announced to us in September, instead of using our savings to do another round of IVF, we were forced to live on the money that we had set aside.

We know time is ticking for us, and each month we wait, is another month we cannot get back with our future children. I am 43 years old, and my wife turns 34 in a few months – and we do feel the urgency of the situation.

The pilot said the “mental anguish, financial and emotional distress has been very tough to weather.”

“There clearly has been irreparable harm done because of the unreasonable accommodation offered to us,” he concluded. “As each month passes, my wife’s viable eggs are diminishing, as well as our chances of having children of our own. I plead with you, to allow me and my fellow pilots back to work, at least under the same accommodations that our competitors have offered their pilots.”

Breitbart News obtained another letter, dated Feb. 23, 2022, from a gate agent, Air Force veteran, and mother of four children, one of whom has Down syndrome. The employee, who has sincerely held religious beliefs, detailed how she was able to lift herself up out of a 16-year abusive marriage and solely support her four children by working various jobs at United Airlines since 2006.

“By August 2021, I questioned if I would be homeless, if I would have to rely on my 83-year-old mother again. Would my special needs, non-verbal daughter have medical care — if any of my daughters would have to quit school to work full-time for medical insurance? Would I have to start over another eight years with another airline company to get me to the point I am at now?” she wrote.

“By September, I was self-mutilating. By November I called the veteran’s suicide line three times. By December, I had a breakdown and was on medical for three weeks,” her letter continues.

The woman said the company’s policy of placing unvaccinated employees with exemptions on unpaid leave is “unsubstantiated, discriminatory, and is overall tainting the company.”

She concluded:

It is now time for the board of directors to stand up to that discrimination, take our company back and lead the way in support of all rights, of ALL workers first. I respectfully request the discrimination stop and I be returned to my original position, as a gate agent, and original awarded scheduled shift immediately. Every decision we make, will be judged in our courts and the day we meet our creator. I pray everyone will make the right decision in the eyes of God.

While her organization waits for the lawsuit to play out in court, Walker said Airline Employees 4 Health Freedom hopes to get legislation passed “to prevent these atrocities later on.” Walker noted that despite the variety of struggles experienced by members of her organization, they have “come together so closely as a family.”

“A lot of people leaning on each other — we take our uniforms off for this long, and we just become empathetic human beings. It’s not just captains over here and rampers over there. I’ve seen people reach across all departments and help each other,” she said. “I think we’re strong in our faith, in our communities. So it’s really brought the best in people out as well.”

Their ongoing case is Sambrano v. United Airlines, No. 21-11159 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter.

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