Alabama workers say Baton Rouge-based Turner Industries fired them over Confederate flags on vehicle

[TexasTowelie]

Two Alabama men claim they were fired from Turner Industries this week for refusing to remove the Confederate battle flag from their vehicles, according to Alabama television station WHNT News 19.

Turner, which has corporate headquarters in Baton Rouge, is one of the nation’s largest construction management companies.

Phillip Sims told the TV station he doesn’t normally drive to work with the flag on his truck, but he was running late on Monday, and didn’t take the time to remove it. That’s when a a supervisor at the Decatur, Ala., plant told him to remove the flag or be fired. He said he refused to remove it, on principle, and was fired.

A second employee who asked not to be identified told the station the same thing happened to him.

Read more: http://theadvocate.com/news/12980787-123/alabama-workers-say-turner-industries (Baton Rouge Advocate)

[font color=330099]They were warned, they stood up on principle, they were fired. They should know that their freedom of speech does not mean that there aren't free from the consequences of that speech.

Sims has contacted the ACLU to see if they would take up his case.[/font]

[still_one]

1. What does the company have to say? This is very easy to determine if there is validity to the

argument. For one thing was their work evaluations satisfactory or above?

Second and most important, if the supervisor did fire him, a company as large as Turner Industries needs to fill out the appropriate paper work when someone is fired and the reason for the termination.

Those two issues should be enough to backup the story or not.

The next question is do the employees use their own trucks when going to a work site, and is it company policy not to have any confederate flags or controversial symbols on their truck so not to offend any customers?

Again very easily verified, and if so, by refusing to remove the flag from the truck would be a violation of company policy which would mean the firing would be legal

[TexasTowelie]

2. From the article there is a link to the TV station that originally carried the report.

Sims says the plant superintendent called him outside for a talk. He says the manager said, “Hey, we like your work here and we like you, but your flag, it’s gonna have to go. He said I hate to be the one to tell you that but if you don’t I’m gonna have to fire you.”

He says the company has called him three times since Monday morning offering to rehire him if he’d just take the flag off his truck. But now, Sims says it has just gone too far and he stands by his actions. “I’m unemployed now but I still feel that I made the right decision,” says Sims.

The background for Turner Industries states that they are into heavy industrial construction, pipe, module and vessel fabrication, equipment, rigging and heavy hauling. Based upon that description I doubt that they were using their own trucks to do work at other sites. A more likely prospect is that they did not want those vehicles parked outside their work site displaying a Confederate flag since it could result in vandalism or possible loss of business.

Alabama is a right to work state, so I suspect that insubordination is sufficient grounds to dismiss an employee The man had ample opportunities to address the situation that lead to his unemployment and I doubt that he will be able to collect unemployment.

ETA: Considering that the man appears to be middle-aged and with the downturn in that particular industry because of low oil prices the man probably should be more concerned about holding onto his job so could pay the truck note rather than displaying a flag.

[Sherman A1]

3. I assume the truck was parked on company property

hence I believe they may have a valid case. Had he either removed the flag during his work hours or parked in another location off of company property they would not have cause. Seems pretty silly to me, to lose a job over a symbol, but his choice.