BS: Hurray for Right Wing intimidation!!!

Subject: BS: Hurray for Right Wing intimidation!!!
From: Nerd
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 08:50 PM

From the Decatur (Ala.) Daily:

MOULTON — Lynne Gobbell never imagined the cost of a John Kerry-John Edwards bumper sticker could run so high.

Gobbell of Moulton didn't pay a cent for the sticker that she proudly displays on the rear windshield of her Chevrolet Lumina, but said it cost her job at a local factory after it angered her boss, Phil Gaddis.

Gaddis, a Decatur bankruptcy attorney, owns Enviromate, a cellulose insulation company in Moulton.

Gaddis did not return phone calls from THE DAILY about the alleged Thursday firing.

Gobbell said she consulted a lawyer, but then changed her mind about going to see him. She said she has cried about the incident and must do without income for three weeks while the state unemployment commission decides if she is eligible for compensation.

Gobbell said she was averaging 50 to 60 hours a week on the plant's bagging machine.

"The lady there (at the unemployment commission) said that she has never heard of a firing like this before," Gobbell said.

Gobbell gave this account:

"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.

"I took off my gloves and threw them in the garbage and left," Gobbell said.

Though she is unemployed and uncertain if she will get her job back, Gobbell said, she doesn't regret her decision to keep the sticker on her windshield.

"I would like to find another job, but I would take that job back because I need to work," she said. "It upset me and made me mad that he could put a letter in my check expressing his (political) opinion, but I can't put something on my car expressing mine."

She was referring to a flier that she said Gaddis placed in employee envelopes to remind them of the positive impact that President Bush's policies have had on them. An employee at the plant who would not identify himself confirmed the contents of the letter.

Gobbell provided a copy of the flier. It says:

"Just so you will know, because of the Bush tax (cut):
# I was able to buy the new Hammer Mill
# I was able to finance our receivables
# I was able to get the new CAT skid steer
# I was able to get the wire cutter
# I was able to give you a job"

Subject: RE: BS: Hurray for Right Wing intimidation!!!
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 09:14 PM

Land of the free and home of the brave.

Subject: RE: BS: Hurray for Right Wing intimidation!!!
From: pdq
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 09:24 PM

I once worked in a Union shop.

Anybody who did not "toe the line" in conversation and action was shunned.

They tried to make sure you were a "good Union Democrat" or you were not hired.

If you snuck through and were hired "by mistake", you didn't last very long. There were Union snoops listening to your conversations who reported back to the Union officials.

America's dirty little secret is Union terrorism.

Obviously, I left.

Subject: RE: BS: Hurray for Right Wing intimidation!!!
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 09:40 PM

Lotta this going around. The Bush bullies smell blood and don't goive a rat's behind what they do. They are so arrogant with their power. Personally, I'm getting just a little sick of these people thinking that because they have power that that allows them to define the Bill of Rights any danged way they want to...

Even on the other web site I visit where all we generally do is talk about blues, I was called a "cocksuking traitor" for making a comment about the negative manner that ClearChannel is affecting music and musicans...

Well, if there are any Bushite neocons that read this, consider this. When you quit hearing the progressives portests look around at the country you have been duped into crreating. And fir gosh sakes, Kerry isn't even a progressive and this lady was being bullied for supporting a moderate!

Geeze Loiuse... Osoma has won!!!!

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Hurray for Right Wing intimidation!!!
From: Teresa
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 09:46 PM

Hmmm, aren't there laws against firing folk because of political views?

On the other hand, if it is apparent that the boss holds an opposite view from the employees, then isn't that a calculated risk, considering there is no law against a private party firing someone on the basis of political persuasion?

To me, that letter about Bush would have been an alarm bell, and I think I would have realized that displaying the sticker might mean that I'd get fired.

I think it's wrong, regardless of political leaning, but I don't know what can legally be done about it. ...

T

Subject: RE: BS: Hurray for Right Wing intimidation!!!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 09:52 PM

A friend works at a cabinet shop where those who plan to vote Republican are given time off with pay to go vote. Those who plan to vote Democratic must go on their own time or get docked.

And, yes, there are lots of Bushites out there who think that supporting Kerry is on a par with joining the Taliban. But that's okay, 'cause some of us with Kerry stickers on our windows think supporting Bush is on a par with joining the Nazi Party.

Subject: RE: BS: Hurray for Right Wing intimidation!!!
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 12:35 AM

Do people intending to vote Green have to pay before they leave to vote or is it just deducted from their pay?

Subject: RE: BS: Hurray for Right Wing intimidation!!!
From: Neighmond
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 01:16 AM

I worked for a "gentleman" in Quincy, Illinois who told me that I was not to associate with any gay people because they were on "a fast train to hell" and said if he had any employee with AIDS he would fire them because "AIDS is a gay disese(sp?)"

When he found out I was getting food stamps he called me a "taker" and a "user" and docked my pay the amount of the food stamps because he was "paying taxes to feed me" and damnded if he was going to pay me twice. He was proud because he told his employees that they had better vote republican because "the democrats are all communists."

Nice fella, eh?