Terminated employee files appeal in Arconic lawsuit

Thomas More Society attorneys filed an appeal Tuesday with the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the Snyder v. Arconic lawsuit, a news release says.

Thomas More Society attorneys filed the original lawsuit on behalf of Daniel Snyder, a former longtime Arconic employee. Snyder was terminated from his lead operator position at the Riverdale plant in June 2021 “after he objected to Arconic using the rainbow to promote Gay Pride Month,” the release says.

Snyder was responding to an anonymous survey over the company’s Intranet when he “expressed his deeply held religious beliefs that the rainbow is a sign of the covenant between God and man and that marriage is only between one man and one woman,” according to the release.

Arconic fired Snyder after another employee took offense with his comments, according to the release and court records.

The appeal asks that the court reverse an earlier district court decision and holds that Snyder is entitled to summary judgment on his discrimination claims. “At minimum, it should remand Snyder’s discrimination and retaliation claims for trial.”

An accusation of religious discrimination

On May 18, 2022, Snyder filed a federal lawsuit over religious discrimination against Arconic.

Snyder was terminated in June 2021 from his lead operator position at the lightweight metal engineering and manufacturing facility. Arconic terminated Snyder, a devout Christian, based on a single religious comment he made in attempting to respond to an anonymous company survey, the suit alleges.

In his comment, Snyder expressed his objection to Arconic’s use of the rainbow to promote “Gay Pride Month,” stating briefly that using the rainbow in this manner is “an abomination to God,” as the rainbow “is not meant to be a sign for sexual gender.”

However, Arconic notified Snyder that his comment had been posted publicly on the company “intranet” – which had not been his intent – and that it had offended a fellow employee, an earlier release says.

Snyder was suspended and then terminated, allegedly for violating the company’s “diversity policy,” the lawsuit says, alleging Arconic made no legitimate effort to reasonably accommodate Snyder, even though his statement was manifestly religious, and despite the fact that he informed Arconic that he would not attempt to respond to its solicitations for his opinions again.

Earlier, Thomas More Society attorneys sent a demand letter to Arconic Corporation’s Executive Vice President of Human Resources explaining that Snyder’s termination flagrantly violated federal and state employment law, including its requirement that employers reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious belief that conflicts with company policy, unless an accommodation would be an “undue hardship” to the employer.

Because Arconic refused to offer a reasonable accommodation for his religious beliefs, and rejected the Thomas More Society’s letter requesting a fair settlement, Snyder filed suit, the earlier release says.

Discrimination claims

“Arconic’s actions clearly violated Mr. Snyder’s right to be free from employment discrimination based on religion, as prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Iowa Civil Rights Act,” Michael McHale, counsel at the Thomas More Society, said earlier. “His brief comment, in attempting to respond to a company web survey, was explicitly and facially religious. And yet Arconic made no effort to reasonably accommodate Mr. Snyder’s religious beliefs, even though it was a one-time statement that he had intended to be anonymous and private.”

“Because of his Christian beliefs, Mr. Snyder respects all people regardless of their sexuality, and he previously worked alongside a transgender individual at Arconic without any issues,” added McHale. “His sincerely held Christian beliefs also include the reasonable understanding that the Bible teaches marriage is only between one man and one woman.

“He also sincerely believes that the Bible shows that the rainbow is a sign of the covenant between God and man, and thus that it is sacrilegious to use the rainbow to promote relationships and ideologies that violate God’s law,” the attorney said in an earlier release.

According to the release, Arconic had previously acknowledged Snyder’s religious faith, having granted him a religious accommodation to not work on Sundays so he could preach at a local church service in his capacity as a part-time pastor. Snyder also previously sought, and had been denied, permission to start a formal prayer group, but he sometimes prayed informally with co-workers in the office, including with managerial employees.

A company report confirms that Snyder was disciplined for “violating Arconic’s Diversity Policy” by making an allegedly “offensive comment” on the company intranet, even though it was a one-time expression of his sincerely held religious beliefs, which triggered his rights under federal and state anti-discrimination law, the earlier release said.

“Ironically, it is Arconic that is refusing to respect the diversity of Mr. Snyder’s beliefs or to acknowledge that he was offended by the company’s choice to coopt the rainbow to promote same-sex marriage and gender ideology,” McHale said. “Arconic, in its attempt to force Mr. Synder to eschew his deeply and sincerely held religious beliefs, without attempting to reasonably accommodate him, has violated a very basic tenet of both federal and state anti-discrimination law.”

Read the appeal below

Read the Appeal, in Daniel Snyder v. Arconic Corp. and Arconic Davenport, LLC, filed Nov. 21, 2023, with the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals:

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