Factory worker fired for Kerry bumper sticker

Posted on September 15, 2004 by Ampersand

This is pretty outragious:

“We were going back to work from break, and my manager told me that Phil said to remove the sticker off my car or I was fired,” she said. “I told him that Phil couldn’t tell me who to vote for. He said, ‘Go tell him.’ ”

She went to Gaddis’ office, knocked on the door and entered on his orders.

“Phil and another man who works there were there,” she said. “I asked him if he said to remove the sticker and he said, ‘Yes, I did.’ I told him he couldn’t tell me who to vote for. When I told him that, he told me, ‘I own this place.’ I told him he still couldn’t tell me who to vote for.”

Gobbell said Gaddis told her to “get out of here.”

“I asked him if I was fired and he told me he was thinking about it,” she said. “I said, ‘Well, am I fired?’ He hollered and said, ‘Get out of here and shut the door.’ ”

She said her manager was standing in another room and she asked him if that meant for her to go back to work or go home. The manager told her to go back to work, but he came back a few minutes later and said, ” ‘I reckon you’re fired. You could either work for him or John Kerry,’ ” Gobbell said.

The punchline: The Kerry campaign heard about the firing and has given her a job.

Americablog is very atop this story. Via Samsara Shmamsara.

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4 Responses to Factory worker fired for Kerry bumper sticker

  1. Robert says:
    September 15, 2004 at 1:14 pm

    It’s jerky, but entirely legal. Political opinions aren’t protected against private action.

    It should be noted that she wasn’t fired for voting for JK, no matter what she says. She was let go for refusing to remove a bumper sticker from her car.

    It’s his parking lot, his rules.

    But he’s a jerk. Thanks, jerk.

  2. Helen says:
    September 19, 2004 at 8:03 pm

    Oh God, I hope he isn’t related to my most favourite writer, William Gaddis (“A Frolic of his Own”, “Carpenter’s Gothic”)
    I thought having a political bumper sticker would come under Freedom of Association, which I would have thought is a big part of the whole ideological POINT of the US (I’m an Australian).

  3. MC says:
    September 20, 2004 at 10:59 am

    I was going to make the same point as Robert. Additionally, less extreme treatment happens all the time in the workplace. I work at a state agency where such behavior shouldn’t be allowed, but it happens…to the few conservatives.

    Also, of course John Kerry offered her a job. It’s obvious good press and he could use some right about now.

  4. Pingback: You can’t be fired for who you support politically? Wanna bet? « The Attack Machine.com

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