'I thought Delta listened': Employee fired for 2-word Kirk comment regrets not joining union
A counter-protester waves a U.S. flag in front of a banner with a picture of slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk outside an ICE facility during a "World Naked Bike Ride" protest against increased activity by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and potential National Guard deployment in Portland, Oregon, U.S., October 12, 2025. REUTERS/John Rudoff
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports Delta Air Lines fired its trained brand ambassador for sharing a negative opinion about MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk.
“Good riddance,” wrote former employee Mathew Palmer last September of Kirk.
Palmer, who is gay, had little sympathy Kirk, who described transgender individuals as an “abomination” and a “throbbing middle finger to God.” Kirk also opined that American society should have “just took care of” transgender people “the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and 60s,” referring to outdated practices involving lobotomy, shock therapy and involuntary institutionalization.
Palmer was notified of his suspension by the Atlanta-based airline the day after writing his Facebook post about Kirk’s assassination. The AJC reports he was terminated less than two weeks later. Palmer was one of an undisclosed number of Delta employees affected by the company’s quick reaction to free speech involving Kirk, with the help of MAGA mobbing and reporting of negative opinions of Kirk — who himself had unrelenting access to freedom of speech and frequently advocated for the freedom of speech for others.
Palmer said he had ignored overtures from the company’s union to join, feeling Delta Airlines had a good track record for protecting employees.
“Delta normally listens, which is one of the reasons I advocated against the union,” Palmer said. “I didn’t think you needed a union, because I thought Delta listened.”
Deepa Das Acevedo, an employment law professor at Emory University, said employers across industries “are clamping down on employee speech, even when that speech is off duty and even when it’s fully legal.”
In most states, including Georgia, most private employers are “entitled to do this” for at-will employees, she added. “Our laws allow employers to own employee speech, 24/7.”
“This is particularly visible right now, but it’s not new,” Acevedo told AJC.
Palmer said the company fired him with minimal correspondence. He also described his dismissal as involving little listening, and it seemed “subjective and haphazard.”
“What I saw was Delta is, in fact, a corporation, and your voice is as good as it is, as long as it is good to them,” Palmer said.
Read the Atlanta Journal Constitution report at this link.
